Qualifying to be decisive – Hembery

Pirelli’s motorsport chief Paul Hembery stressed that qualifying will be a decisive factor again at the Hungaroring because the twisty circuit makes overtaking very difficult. He was delighted with the work done on the opening day of the Hungarian GP.

Hungaroring was completely resurfaced for this year which means the track which was built back in 1986 has now a totally smooth surface. The track’s kerbs were also rebuilt. With all the changes teams were keen to get out on to the track to get the first taste of the revitalized track.

“The teams completed all the due diligence that they needed today, throughout two free practice sessions that were made particularly important because of the new track surface.”

Times were topping all through the day and Lewis Hamilton beat the pole position time from last year in the first practice session.

“As expected, it was ‘green’ and slippery to begin with – not helped by the overnight rain – but we’ve seen a considerable improvement in lap times compared to 2015, with last year’s pole time already beaten in FP1.

The Briton expects further tyre evaluation in tomorrow’s final practice, although even the supersoft compound, the softest brought to this track proved to be very durable on the longer race simulation runs.

“With qualifying being traditionally so crucial to the race result here, the set-up and tyre evaluation work that continues tomorrow will be of vital importance,” said Hembery.