2010 Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying

5 min: Alguersuari posts a representative time to go second with 1m24.812s.

5 min: The grip levels will also continue to improve during this hour as the track was set back by a sizable thunderstorm overnight.

4 min: Hulkenberg slots in third behind the Renault pair with 1m30.140s, having backed off due to traffic.

4 min: As ever, the drivers are likely to find more speed on subsequent laps with these harder tyres as the rubber builds up to temperature.

3 min: Hulkenberg is slightly slower than the Renault drivers through the first sector of the first qualifying lap.

3 min: Petrov starts the ball rolling with a time of 1m23.386s.

3 min: Hamilton and Button head out to join the early runners and get a feel for the track conditions.

3 min: Schumacher, Sutil and Alguersuari come out. Alguersuari will have a job on his hands to make it through the first phase.

2 min: Webber and Rosberg also join the racetrack.

2 min: Kubica and Glock are now also out as Petrov begins his first flying lap on hard tyres.

2 min: Nico Hulkenberg joins the Renault drivers on track. The German should progress through this first period. He is followed by Barrichello.

1 min: The Russian has been on strong form this weekend on a circuit he knows well from his GP2 days.

1 min: Petrov breaks the silence and heads out in his Renault.

0 min: Nico Hulkenberg is being advised about the traffic potential in this first qualifying period by his race engineer on the Williams radio.

0 min: The first segment is underway.

Alonso is ready to go in the Ferrari but on practice pace he may struggle to stop the Red Bulls this afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel is ready in the cockpit of the Red Bull to try and grab the pole from Webber's grasp.

Robert Kubica is getting comfortable in his Renault and could be the man to cause an upset this afternoon.

The track temperature is up to a warm 41 Celsius this afternoon under sunny skies at the Hungaroring.

Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix gets underway in five minutes.

McLaren aims to stay ahead of Renault

McLaren aims to stay ahead of Renault © Sutton
Few would bet against total Red Bull domination in the upcoming hour and the squad could even be in the unique position of being able to make it all the way through to the pole shootout without deploying the quicker super-soft tyres - although its drivers might try a lap in Q2 on the options just to see how the track conditions have progressed.

Behind the RB6 steamroller, Ferrari looks to be in a secure second place on pace, although Felipe Massa was struggling with oversteer this morning so could potentially fall back towards a fascinating scrap involving the McLaren drivers.

The championship leaders go into this session with a clear deficit in speed around this circuit - particularly through the twisting middle section where supreme downforce is giving the Red Bulls a huge advantage.

McLaren need to be particularly wary of the Renault drivers, who have both shown impressive pace here, building on the strong form shown around the similarly-formed circuit in Monaco. Renault hasn't always converted practice pace into grid position, but it looks like the McLaren men need something special once again to avoid being mired in the lower half of the top ten.

Here's how the qualifying battle is shaping up within the teams: Qualifying head-to-head Button 4 - 7 Hamilton Schumacher 2 - 9 Rosberg Vettel 6 - 5 Webber Massa 3 - 8 Alonso Barrichello 8 - 3 Hulkenberg Kubica 11 - 0 Petrov Sutil 9 - 2 Liuzzi Buemi 9 - 2 Alguersuari Trulli 6 - 5 Kovalainen Senna 1 - 0 Yamamoto De la Rosa 6 - 5 Kobayashi Glock 10 - 1 Di Grassi

Keep up to speed with our minute-by-minute commentary on the move with the new AUTOSPORT app.

On a train? In an airport? No TV? Get the AUTOSPORT Live experience optimised for your iPhone now:

The AUTOSPORT app

Weather conditions are still fine, dry and reasonably sunny at the Hungaroring, as temperatures climb steadily towards today's maximum of 28 degrees Celsius.

A large developing thunderstorm band is moving slowly north and slightly to the west, away from Budapest on the western side of the country, but this will not come into play and we can look forward to a dry qualifying battle.

The view of Webber that the rest of the field had this morning

The view of Webber that the rest of the field had this morning © Sutton
Mark Webber got the better of team-mate Sebastian Vettel in this morning's final practice session, as Red Bull raced away from the rest of the field.

The Australian produced a startling 1m19.574s lap on super-soft tyres deep in the hour-long session to take the honours. Vettel improved on his final run but seemed to find more traffic than his team-mate.

Alonso finished third with Kubica delivering a good lap for fourth, while Massa was fifth and Hamilton rounded out the top six.

Force India hit trouble during the session, with Tonio Liuzzi suffering a driveshaft failure, limiting his running to just eight laps. The team said via Twitter: "Tonio's car will have driveshaft change but no gearbox change. it was a faulty driveshaft boot that seals the grease to the driveshaft joint."

Webber heads final practice

Sunny skies earlier at the Hungaroring

Sunny skies earlier at the Hungaroring © Sutton
Good afternoon everyone and welcome back to AUTOSPORT Live for continuing coverage from round 12 in this year's FIA Formula 1 world championship.

The practice sessions have been completed and now it's time to qualify for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Form this weekend of the leading teams has offered up a similar pattern: Red Bull is out on its own with Ferrari doing its best to give chase. This morning, Alonso was third quickest behind the flying RB6s, but a full 1.150 seconds down on the time sheet - a huge gap in racing terms as we head towards the sport's summer shutdown.

McLaren and Renault appear to be fighting to be the third best team. The French outfit produced a blinding performance in final practice this morning and championship leader Lewis Hamilton looks to have a job on his hands just to secure a spot on the third row this afternoon.

Williams has again shown good pace and both Barrichello and Hulkenberg will be aiming to sneak into the top ten shootout. Look out for the FW32s to battle it out with Mercedes - just as we saw at Hockenheim last weekend.