Vettel leads Norris as Kubica returns in Hungary

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of the in-season test at the Hungaroring but was upstaged by the performances of Robert Kubica (pictured above) and Lando Norris on Wednesday.

Fresh from his victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix, Vettel took the opportunity to carry out two hours of running on Wednesday morning and duly set the pace with a 1m17.124s on the supersoft tire. The championship leader said it was important for him to take the opportunity to test and was pleased with the work done by Ferrari.

"There aren't many tests and testing is obviously limited so it's important to get into the car outside the race weekend, when you have a bit more freedom to try stuff, both for the team and for the driver," Vettel said. "Obviously there wasn't a lot of time today, I got a test in Bahrain so I'm quite happy to get a couple of hours.

"We tried some small things to get a feeling and the feeling was good, so now we know in general after so many races what we need to do. We will have a bit of a break for everyone which is important and then we will start again."

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Although Vettel was quickest, Kubica was the big draw with thousands of fans turning out (pictured, above) to see the Pole return with his first public test in a current car since his rally accident at the start of 2011. Emerging to huge cheers, Kubica's day started inauspiciously as he hit the garage wall with his right-rear wheel, pulling down the sign above the garage as he did so.

From there, things got much better. Kubica was quickly up to speed and completed 142 laps as he proved his fitness and ability to drive a current F1 car on a tight and busy circuit despite limitations to his right arm. Carrying out some qualifying simulation runs in the afternoon, the 32-year-old posted the fourth-fastest time overall with a 1m18.572s, using the ultrasoft tire. For comparison, his best lap was a 0.157s slower than Jolyon Palmer's qualifying attempt on Saturday, although Palmer was using supersofts.

Despite the focus on Kubica, McLaren protege Norris will grab plenty of headlines after an impressive showing in the MCL32 (pictured below). The 17-year-old was getting his first taste of a current F1 car having driven a 2011 McLaren in Portugal earlier this year, and duly set the second-fastest time.

Having been just 0.06s slower than Stoffel Vandoorne on comparable runs during the morning session, Norris also got to carry out more low fuel runs on ultrasoft tires in the afternoon and posted a 1m17.385s to end up just 0.261s adrift of Vettel. That lap was also nearly half a second quicker than Vandoorne managed on Tuesday. Although Norris suffered a spin at Turn 4 just before the lunch break, he also posted an impressive 1m17.900s on supersofts, leaving him just 0.006s slower than Vandoorne's Q3 lap on Saturday and 0.351s slower than Fernando Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen split Norris and Kubica on the timing screens having taken over from Vettel in the morning session, posting a best lap some 0.7s off his team-mate's pace. However, the Finn only managed 60 laps to Vettel's 40 as a number of red flags punctuated the afternoon session.

With Norris causing the only stoppage of the morning, running continued uninterrupted until the final half hour, with Daniil Kvyat stopping on track. That was then followed by another red flag 10 minutes later – this time caused by Luca Ghiotto in the Williams – before Mercedes youngster George Russel stopped with a little over eight minutes remaining.

Kvyat ended up sixth quickest behind teammate Carlos Sainz after Toro Rosso also split its running between its two race drivers, while Lucas Auer was seventh for Force India as he and Nikita Mazepin shared driving duties on Wednesday.

Russell's stoppage resulted in a slightly early end to proceedings, with the Briton finishing eighth-fastest overall after a disjointed day. The GP3 championship leader ran an updated version of the Halo early on the second day but only carried out short runs and spent a while in the garage while the device was removed. His final time of 1m19.391s was a little under 0.2s slower than he had managed on Tuesday, while Wednesday's tally of 90 laps was also lower than the previous day.

While Kubica impressed with 142 laps Ghiotto was the only driver to exceed that tally as he managed 161 laps on his first day in an F1 car. The Italian F2 driver was 11th quickest overall – 3.2s off Vettel's pace – with a best lap 0.6s slower than Lance Stroll managed on the opening day.

Pierre Gasly (10th quickest), Santino Ferrucci (12th) and Nobuharu Matsushita (13th), also all completed over 100 laps, with Haas youngster Ferrucci shaving 0.2s off his best time from Tuesday.