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Lewis Hamilton was in impressive form as he set the pace in second practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix yesterday. The world champion was 0.351 seconds clear of Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull in second place and 0.719sec ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

The German was fourth, behind the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fifth with team-mate Sebastian Vettel seventh after two spins, behind Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz.

Hamilton was also quickest in the first session and was more than 0.7sec quicker than Rosberg on the medium tyre earlier in the session, as well as on the soft tyre on his qualifying simulation run.

The world champion looks already as if he will be tough to beat this weekend, on a race track where he has won four of the eight races in which he has competed.

Rosberg had a second attempt to try to close the gap to Hamilton but was already 0.6sec down when he aborted the lap after a mistake at Turn 12.

Red Bull’s pace suggests that they could potentially emerge as the second quickest team behind Mercedes this weekend, as the twists and turns of the Hungaroring emphasise their strong chassis and play down the power deficit of the Renault engine. —BBC Sport.