page_title: 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix
section_title: Practice
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix / Practice
caption_attribution_description: Lewis Hamilton happy to sign autographs for the fans.
context_page_description: The 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 August 2008, at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród, near Budapest, Hungary. It was the 11th race of the 2008 Formula One season. Contested over 70 laps, the race was won by Heikki Kovalainen for the McLaren team, from a second position start. Timo Glock finished second in a Toyota car, with Kimi Räikkönen third in a Ferrari. It was Kovalainen's first Formula One victory, which made him the sport's 100th driver to win a World Championship race, and it was Glock's first podium finish. It also turned out to be the only F1 race Kovalainen ever won.
  The majority of the race consisted of a duel between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa, who drove for McLaren and Ferrari, respectively. Hamilton started from pole position but was beaten at the first corner by Massa, who passed him around the outside. The two championship rivals began a battle for the lead that was resolved when Hamilton sustained a punctured tyre just over halfway through the race, giving Massa a lead of more than 20 seconds over Kovalainen. The Ferrari's engine, however, failed with three laps remaining, allowing the McLaren driver to win.
context_section_description: Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday from 10:00 to 11:30 and 14:00 to 15:30 local time, and a third on Saturday morning between 11:00 and 12:00. The first practice session took place in dry conditions. The ambient temperature was between 27–28 °C (81–82 °F), and the track temperature ranged from 31–34 °C (88–93 °F) during the hour-long period. Massa set the session's fastest time with a lap of 1 minute and 20.981 seconds, almost four-tenths of a second ahead of his teammate Räikkönen. The two McLaren drivers were third and fourth, Kovalainen ahead of Hamilton. Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr. set the fifth and eighth-fastest times respectively for Renault; they were separated by Glock and Kubica. Their teammates, Heidfeld and Toyota driver Jarno Trulli, completed the top ten. Vettel's Toro Rosso car was afflicted by a hydraulics problem; this restricted him to completing only four timed laps, and he was slowest overall.
  The second practice session was held in similar weather to the first; the only difference was a slightly higher peak track temperature of 37 °C (99 °F). During this session, Hamilton set the quickest lap time of the day, a 1:20.554; Kovalainen finished with the third-fastest time. The Renault drivers were again quick—Piquet in second and Alonso fourth—although the team's Executive Director of Engineering, Pat Symonds, admitted both cars were running with slightly lower fuel loads than normal, improving their performance. Räikkönen and Massa slipped to fifth and sixth respectively, their best times one-thousandth of a second apart. They were ahead of Heidfeld, Kubica, Trulli and Williams driver Nico Rosberg. Vettel's car was still suffering from the hydraulics problem and he completed just five laps, again setting the slowest time of the session.
  Saturday's weather was again dry for the third and final practice session, with ambient temperature between 27–29 °C (81–84 °F) and track temperature from 32–36 °C (90–97 °F). Hamilton again set the fastest time, a 1:20.228, quicker than his best on Friday. This put him immediately ahead of Massa, Glock, Kovalainen and Piquet. Heidfeld was much happier with the setup of his car and set the sixth-fastest time, but Kubica suffered a mechanical problem that restricted him to 18th position. Vettel had a trouble-free session and set the eighth-fastest time, one position behind teammate Sébastien Bourdais. Räikkönen and Rosberg completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.
caption: Lewis Hamilton took his fourth pole position of the season, and the tenth of his career.
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