Surprise double for Ricciardo in Hungary

Daniel Ricciardo cemented his status as a real contender for the Hungarian Grand Prix after he completed a surprise practice double yesterday.

Ricciardo’s Red Bull team have a number of updates on their car at the Hungaroring for the final round of the championship before the four-week summer break.

The early signs appeared promising for the former world champions after Ricciardo, a winner at last month’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, soared to the top of the time sheets in both sessions.

Ricciardo finished 0.183 seconds clear of championship leader Sebastian Vettel while Lewis Hamilton, who trails the German by a single point in this year’s title race, was only fifth.

Hamilton, who is bidding to equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time pole record, failed to set a competitive time on the supersoft tyre – the fastest of the compounds available this weekend – and was three-tenths shy of Ricciardo’s best effort.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third in the order with Kimi Raikkonen fourth and Max Verstappen sixth. The top six cars, meanwhile, were separated by less than half-a-second to set up what could prove to be a nail-biting qualifying session today.

British driver Jolyon Palmer damaged his Renault in opening practice, and had further problems in the second running.