Vettel dominates Friday's proceedings

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) dominated both of Friday's free practice session at the Hungaroring ahead of Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Vettel and teammate Mark Webber quickly established themselves at the top of the lap charts by setting the fastest times early on, using the 'prime' hard-compound tyres.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) was the first of the fast drivers to try the super-soft 'option' tyre and although he improved from 10th to fifth fastest, he was still 0.7 sec slower than Webber's time on the prime tyres.

Fernando Alonso and Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa were half a second behind the Red Bulls but gradually got their times closer before Vettel went out on option tyres and posted a 1'20.087 to go a full half a second faster than anyone including his team mate. He set the time with half an hour remaining in the session and it was not bettered by anyone.

All the drivers were pushing hard, and rookies and world champions alike ran wide at the corners and bounced across the outfield or the concrete rumble strips as they tried to find the racing line that had the maximum grip.

The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were able to match Webber's times, but not Vettel's, and went second and fourth-fastest respectively.

There was god pace from the Renaults of Vitaly Petrov (fifth) and Robert Kubica (seventh) who bracketed Hamilton. Nico Hülkenberg was eighth in a Williams-Cosworth.

There is another free practice session on Saturday morning followed by the crucial afternoon qualifying. Overtaking at the Hungaroring is all but impossible, so the grid positions will approximate the finishing positions on Sunday.

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