Budapest, 1st August

After three hours of free practice, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa ended up fifth and sixth fastest around the tight and twisty Hungaroring, while earlier, the Brazilian was quickest at the end of the morning session with the Finn second. Despite a few thunderstorms over the city of Budapest last night, the atmosphere at the track is still humid and very hot.

Winner of the last two grands prix, Lewis Hamilton was quickest in his McLaren-Mercedes ahead of the man who finished second to him in Germany a fortnight ago, Nelson Piquet in the Renault. Third was the other McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen who yesterday was confirmed as staying with the team for 2009. Fernando Alonso was fourth in the second Renault.

Friday at the Hungaroring always follows the same pattern, with no teams keen to do too much running in the early stages of the session as this infrequently used circuit, with a sandy soil surrounding it, tends to be very dirty and lacking in grip. In practical terms, this plays havoc with the tyres, causing "graining" when rubber builds up on the tread surface, reducing their efficiency after the first lap and then taking a while to become clean again. The lack of grip provided by the track surface also makes it very difficult to assess how tyres will work over a longer race stint, while suspension and aero setting changes made as a reaction to these conditions can prove to be less than perfect come Saturday morning when more rubber, some of it from all the other categories racing here, can completely change the track characteristics.

Nevertheless, the engineers still need to gather as much data as possible, especially as the Scuderia is running some new components here, so between them Kimi and Felipe completed a total of 112 laps, 57 for the Finn and two less for the Brazilian.