PitPass sometimes do a very useful thing when it comes to practice times - they publish a listing of aggregate times for two sessions combined. They have done this for Friday in Hungary and it makes interesting reading.
Quickest of the day - Lewis Hamilton
Naturally, we go down the list to see who is quickest but there is an odd little snippet buried within the times: Massa was the only one who failed to go faster in the second session. That is unusual in itself, the little Brazilian generally becoming quicker as the weekend proceeds, but it is also notable that Raikkonen has uncharacteristically gone quicker than his team mate in practice. It seems that the Finn is taking this one seriously.
He will have a difficult job tomorrow and on Sunday, however; the Ferrari does not seem to have caught up to the McLarens as yet and, indeed, were outpaced by the Renaults. Yes, both of them - Piquet second fastest and apparently ready to prove that Hockenheim was no flash in the pan.
Renault's rise to prominence should not surprise us, it being usual for them to improve at an accelerating pace through the season, but they have not quite arrived as yet. In qualifying they tend to get buried amongst those teams who have been concentrating on race set-up in practice, BMW and Red Bull generally finishing higher up the grid. I expect the same to happen here but the improvement in the Renault is becoming very obvious and they could threaten the top three within a few more races.
BMW look a good deal more promising than they have done for a while. Remembering that they are the great sandbaggers of practice, their Ferrari-like times today must make them contenders for the front two rows of the grid. And Heidfeld is quicker than Kubica, surely proof that he is over his tire-warming problems. The BMW may not threaten the McLarens yet but Ferrari must be very worried.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is the mediocre performance of the Red Bull pair. After becoming a factor in the battle for third fastest team, they have slumped here and even Toyota have slipped ahead. This may be a matter of the Newey chassis not being as good on tight circuits; it is hard to judge since our usual yardstick, Vettel, had a troubled time today and was not able to show how quick the STR can be. I suspect that both teams will find it difficult to make it through to Q3, however.
Williams and Toyota seem to be marking time on the development front, very much midfield at this circuit. And Honda and Force India bring up the rear as usual. This is more an indicator of how competitive the sport is at the moment than a matter of inability to cut the mustard - discounting Vettel's times, less than two seconds separate the dominant McLarens from the slowest car on the grid. When such small margins are involved, it takes only a minor tweak to send a team rocketing up through the order.
Hence the proliferation of shark fins, of course. It is obvious that this modification gives only the slightest of improvements, if any, but each team has to try it just in case. The first team to stumble upon somethjing that makes a significant difference is going to look very good for a while.
It looks like we have another McLaren race on our hands, however. The sensible money has to be on Hamilton for the win but Kovalainen has a shot at pole on his current form. A McLaren one-two here would be a boring race but must also set the constructors championship alight. Funny how the competition gets better as the politics of F1 put the future in question...