Ahead of this morning's free practice session, the air temperature is 28 degrees C, while the track temperature is 33 degrees. It is bright and sunny, indeed, there is already a slight heat haze.

One man who has some serious work to do this morning is Sebastian Vettel, who was sidelined in both sessions yesterday, both times due to hydraulics problems.

It comes as no surprise that the German is one of the first men out on track, along with the Force Indias, Renaults, BMWs and Williams.

It will be interesting to see if some teams, most notably Ferrari, stick with some of the new devices they tried yesterday, such as the 'dorsal fin'.

Five minutes into the session, all but the Ferraris and Hondas have been out.

A garage shot of the F2008 shows that Ferrari is indeed sticking with the dorsal fin.

The tyre options this weekend are soft and super-soft, which for reasons of convenience - and to save on typing! - we will refer to as hard (soft) and soft (super-soft).

Eight minutes into the session, the Force India return to the track, Sutil leading his Italian teammate.

The German posts the first time of the day, crossing the line at 1:24.375. Fisichella posts 25.109.

The Renaults and Toro Rossos get to work. Piquet is on softs while his Spanish teammate is on hards. Elsewhere, Sutil has raised the benchmark with a 23.384.

Raikkonen leaves the pits, and on his first flying lap goes quickest in the first sector, as Vettel goes quickest in the second. Bourdais takes the top spot (22.448) ahead of his Toro Rosso teammate, but both are quickly demoted by Raikkonen, who crosses the line at 22.032.

As Vettel improves (22.041), Bourdais gets horribly crossed up but makes a great job of keeping it all under control.

Piquet clearly has a problem, having posted 52.471, he is crawling around the Hungarian track. His next lap is 49.653. Meanwhile, Alonso has posted 47.735, over 25s off the pace… what are the Renaults playing at?

Vettel goes quickest with a 21.993, as the Renaults continue to lap the Hungaroring at a snail's pace.

Nakajima goes third (22.391), ahead of Bourdais, Sutil and Fisichella as Massa comes out to play. Kovalainen is on track also.

Following a poor second sector, Massa goes ninth (32.075), as the Renaults continue to lap in the 1:47s.

Next time around, Massa goes quickest in the second sector, finally stopping the clock at 21.679 to go quickest. Elsewhere, Bourdais is at a total loss to explain his car's lack of grip, and its tendency to go where it wants to go rather than where he wants it to go.

On his first flying lap, Hamilton goes quickest (21.410), having gone quickest in the first and third sectors. The Renaults continue to mystify, both having completed 10 laps but still over 26s off the pace. Surely there is method to this madness.

It's a McLaren 1-2 as Hamilton improves with a 21.098 and Kovalainen goes second with a 21.654.

Sutil goes well wide, but is still able to catch, and leave for dead, one of the Renaults. This has to be tyre thing surely, there can be no other reason. Even if they were running with enough fuel to last the entire race (impossible we know) they wouldn't be this far off the pace.

A 21.975 sees Kubica go fourth, as Hamilton is told that he has made good gains in the second and final sectors compared to Friday.

With just a little more than half the session gone, it's: Hamilton, Kovalainen, Massa, Kubica, Vettel, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Bourdais, Glock and Heidfeld. At which point Coulthard improves to fourth (21.942).

Rosberg is asked if he wants a front wing adjustment when he pits or to go as planned, "go as planned!" is the instant response.

Raikkonen improves to fifth with a 21.876 then heads back to the pits as Glock demotes him to sixth.

Both Renaults are back on track, and in the first sector Alonso (softs) is more or less on the button. His second sector is also fairly good, the Spaniard crossing the line at 21.996 to go eleventh. Moments later, his Brazilian teammate goes fourth with a 21.679. Whatever they were doing, it seems to have worked.