Coulthard cautious on McLaren prospects

The Scot won his and McLaren's only race of the season in Monte Carlo, a circuit that demands a similar high downforce set-up to Hungaroring. McLaren personnel then openly admitted that Hungary would provide its next best chance of a victory.

Contemplating the Hungaroring weekend, however, Coulthard said: "I think the biggest influence on our performance here is going to be the tyres. If I look at when we've been stronger, it's been with softer tyres than we've actually got available to us here.

"The only saving situation for us is the possibility that as we have a similar tyre to the one that gave us a good race performance at Magny-Cours, then we might have a reasonable situation here in the race too.

"It's also a full downforce circuit, as is Monaco, and that plays more to the car. Last year Michael was on pole by eight tenths here when we were on the same tyre, so he obviously had quite an advantage. It will be interesting to see just how well the Michelin works here on this year's car."