After the fast corners and cool temperatures of Silverstone and the Nurburgring, the tight and twisty Hungaroring on the outskirts of Budapest in Hungary - which is normally characterised by hot weather at this time of year - presents a stark contrast for the Pirelli P Zero tyres. The Hungaroring was inaugurated in 1986, after just eight months of construction work, as the first grand prix in Eastern Europe.

Since then it has proved to be extraordinarily popular, even though it is used very infrequently outside of the grand prix. This is key to one of the circuit's main features: a dusty, slippery surface that progressively rubbers in over the course of the weekend. This puts grip at a premium, which is one of the reasons why Pirelli has brought the P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero Red supersoft tyres to the Hungaroring. The 16 corners are tight and narrow, similar to Monte Carlo, with a low average speed. This makes the circuit ideally suited to the softer tyres in Pirelli's P Zero range, although this is the first time all season that the supersoft will face competition in very warm weather.

While it rained in Budapest over the weekend, temperatures for the race are expected to be in the region of 26 or 27 degrees centigrade, meaning that the drivers will have to think about conserving their tyres. With the Hungaroring renowned as a track where overtaking is difficult, like Monaco, the teams are presented with a chance to make up places through clever use of tyre strategy - and this is sure to be one of the focal points of the weekend.

Spectators are able to see a lot of the action at first hand as from most vantage points 80% of the circuit is visible, due to its location in a natural bowl. The track surface itself tends to be bumpy, testing traction to the limit as well.

For this race, there will be no allocation of extra tyres for free practice, leaving teams with their normal 11 sets of tyres for the weekend.

Paul Hembery: "Hungary certainly couldn't be more different to the races we have seen recently, as we found out when we went to the Hungaroring for our first season of the GP3 series last year. However, as the GP3 tyres are completely different to those we race in Formula One, there's not much that we learned apart from an initial idea of what to expect: high temperatures and a slippery track surface. The big challenge for the teams and drivers is going to be keeping tyre wear under control in the warm conditions, but we have used the P Zero Yellow soft tyre in warm weather before and it has shown good performance. The supersoft tyre is almost certain to result in some quick qualifying laps but obviously it doesn't have the same resistance to wear. How the teams juggle the parameters of speed and durability will once again form the key to their different strategies. There has been plenty of drama at the Hungaroring in the past and with so many new elements to the racing this year, I hope we're in for another exciting grand prix."

To experience the Hungaroring in more detail click here