Mixed start for the Silver Arrows on sweltering opening day in Budapest

• Lewis topped the morning session with Nico P2
• Nico then set the fastest time of the day in the afternoon session, Lewis the fifth fastest
• Lewis sat out the majority of FP2 after heavy contact with the barrier at T11, which overloaded several components on the car and meant no further running was possible in the session
• Both drivers completed install runs on intermediate tyres on a damp circuit at the start of FP1, running the Soft and Supersoft compounds thereafter

Nico Rosberg An impressive day for us, performance-wise. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be in quite such a strong position tomorrow – but for now it’s very positive. I’m feeling great out there and the car is very quick, so a good start to the weekend overall. We got everything done in terms of qualifying and race sim work and it’s all looking very good. I think the new asphalt suits us, so I’m optimistic. It’s a great feeling to start the day like that with the contract being sorted. That was always going to be a positive boost. Now I’m really excited for the rest of the weekend in my awesome Silver Arrow.

Lewis Hamilton Obviously, not the greatest session for me. My apologies to the crew for all the hard work they have ahead to strip the car and get it back together. Fortunately, I got a good feel for it in the few laps that I did have and the pace is clearly there, so hopefully tomorrow I can make up for the time lost today during the morning session and come back strongly in Qualifying.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical) There was a great deal of anticipation going into today, as we eagerly awaited the chance to try out a long-standing circuit with all-new tarmac, all-new kerbs and the SuperSoft compound in use for the first time at this venue. We had a good session in FP1, with both tyre compounds working even better than expected and no issues to report. Unfortunately, early in FP2 Lewis was caught out by one of the new, unpainted kerbs on the entry to T11, resulting in quite a heavy impact with the barriers. This ruled him out of the remainder of the session as the crew assessed the damage to his car. The most important thing is that Lewis was unharmed despite the impact. These cars are very stiff and very strong in a pure lateral load, so he went to the medical centre for assessment after a high G-Force reading from the accident data recorder – but luckily the tyre barrier took most of the energy out of the impact. There has been some damage to suspension and a few bodywork elements – but this will be easily fixed overnight. With Nico, we managed to complete a full programme – including some good long runs – so fortunately we have all the data we need heading into the weekend despite the setback for Lewis. We now look forward to a good competition tomorrow.