The Hungarian Grand Prix preview

At the Nurburgring Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren were evenly matched, creating the most tense race of the year as the game of strategic cat and mouse was played out at the front. It was Lewis Hamilton and McLaren who won that battle - and win is the right word, for he, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber were all bang on their game throughout the race.

Inevitably that leads to the conclusion that we will see a repeat performance of that kind of scrap in Hungary. But although the others have closed on Red Bull, the tight and twisty configuration of the Hungaroring could stretch the three out a little.

As ever, Red Bull is favourite. Why? Because it dominated utterly at the Hungaroring last year and it appears to continue to have the edge in the slower corners. Although Webber won last year, that was only after Sebastian Vettel had been hit with a drive-through penalty for backing the field up under the safety car to give the Australian, who had yet to make his pitstop, a jump on them.

So it's no foregone conclusion that this will be Webber territory, although with two poles from the last two races, his season is coming together and it could be nip and tuck with Vettel, who should be back on form after an indifferent weekend on home soil.

McLaren looks best suited to challenge. Hamilton was very fast in the first sector at the Nurburgring and he has form at the Hungaroring, taking a brilliant win in 2009 after passing Webber on track. While a track that demands the drivers be silky smooth to avoid accelerating the tyre degradation process should bring Jenson Button into his own, if Hamilton can maintain his inspired form from last weekend, he will be the man to lead the charge.

For Ferrari, this will likely be a weekend of consolidation. Its car is fast, but lacks a little grip in the slower corners, so a track made up largely of second and third gear turns is far from Prancing Horse territory. In this sort of situation, Alonso traditionally goes into consolidation mode, so if he gets onto the podium for the fourth consecutive race, he will likely be happy with his weekend's work.

As for Felipe Massa, Hungary is a track that he has a pretty torrid relationship with. His life-threatening shunt in qualifying in 2009 is the obvious reason, but when asked about the place a few weeks ago, losing a certain win with only a few miles to go in 2008 with an engine failure seems to be the more painful memory!

The battle at the front of the midfield should be fascinating. At the Nurburgring, Mercedes was the fastest of that group, although the car's inability to go through the race on two stops handed the initiative to Adrian Sutil in the improving Force India. Sauber is likely to be back on Q3 pace in the hotter temperatures while Renault, which should continue its experiments with the Red Bull-style exhaust on Friday, has a nimble car that should put it in contention - especially if Vitaly Petrov can recreate his inspired form of last year.

The final race before the August break and mandatory factory shut-down, this race has the potential to set the tone for the rest of the year. A Vettel win will set up a title run-in of cruising and collecting, while for McLaren and Ferrari, an against-the-odds triumph will give fresh hope that the yawning chasm to the bewinged energy drinks company can be bridged in the eight races that follow.

Strategy

Hungaroring's long corners put a premium on drivers not abusing the tyres by being throttle happy and most expect that to be the difference between making a two or a three-stop race.

Tyre warm-up shouldn't be a problem, so that leaves far more potential for the prime tyre to be used earlier in the race as some gamble on alternative strategies and with the DRS zone on the start/finish straight, it's expected to be relatively easy for a fast car on good rubber to get past anyone struggling on rear Pirellis that they have taken too much life out of.

In short, expect a very different Hungarian Grand Prix to what we have seen in the past, with more than the very occasional overtaking move to keep you on the edge of your seat.

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