Ferrari reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi set an unofficial track record at the Hungaroring on the opening day of the second in-season test, before heavy rain struck.
Most of the day’s action took place in hot and sunny conditions but heavy rain struck the circuit with 90 minutes of the afternoon session.
It was during the afternoon in which morning pacesetter Giovinazzi gradually lowered the benchmark, eventually dipping into the 1:15s once equipped with a set of Hypersoft tyres.
Giovinazzi emerged again on the new-for-2018 pink-banded rubber – that was not available during the preceding race weekend – and wound up with a lap of 1:15.648.
It was just over half a second up on the previous track record posted by Sebastian Vettel in the SF71H last Saturday, albeit on softer tyres and a theoretically more rubbered in circuit.
Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson also used Hypersofts to emerge as Giovinazzi’s nearest rival, though he wound up 2.5s behind the Italian, who will take over the reins of the C37 for Wednesday’s running.
Brendon Hartley amassed the most mileage as he racked up 126 laps in the Toro Rosso-Honda to finish third, a mere 0.043s in front of McLaren reserve driver Lando Norris, the pair both setting their best time on Ultrasofts.
F2 title leader George Russell was fifth for Mercedes, and completed the fewest laps, his best coming on Supersofts, while Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo (Ultrasofts) was sixth, ahead of Nicholas Latifi (Soft).
Latifi, along with ninth-placed Williams young gun Oliver Rowland (Softs) ran with prototype 2019 front wings early in the morning, as teams look ahead to next year’s regulations.
They were split by Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (Mediums), who missed the afternoon session due to an electrical fault, while Sean Gelael finished at the foot of the 10-driver table after carrying out tyre testing in association with Pirelli.
Gelael, though, brought his running to a premature end when he crashed at Turn 11 with just over two hours left in the afternoon session.
Haas has opted not to participate in this week’s test.
Only Norris and Ricciardo opted to take to the circuit after the rain fell, providing minimal action across the final 90 minutes of the session.
Running is set to resume at 09:00 local time on Wednesday
| 1 | A. Giovinazzi | Ferrari | 1:15.648 | 96 | |
| 2 | M. Ericsson | Sauber | 1:18.155 | 2.507 | 95 |
| 3 | B.Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:19.251 | 3.603 | 66 |
| 4 | L. Norris | McLaren | 1:19.294 | 3.646 | 126 |
| 5 | G. Russell | Mercedes | 1:19.781 | 4.133 | 49 |
| 6 | D.Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:19.854 | 4.206 | 125 |
| 7 | N. Latifi | Force India | 1:19.994 | 4.346 | 103 |
| 8 | N. Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:20.826 | 5.178 | 63 |
| 9 | O. Rowland | Williams | 1:20.970 | 5.322 | 65 |
| 10 | S. Gelael | Toro Rosso | 1:21.451 | 5.803 | 109 |
