Jonathan Noble: Online

It was a case of hats off and then hats on at the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hats off? Well, for the first time in my life, I actually found myself feeling genuinely sorry for Felipe Massa. And hats on? It was a thinking cap trying to work out what is going on with Kimi Raikkonen.

So, Massa first.

I'm always a great believer that if a driver is not standing on the top step of the podium almost every race, then he has to spend some time winning the media war if he wants to earn some respect in the paddock.

Felipe Massa © LAT

And winning the media over is a lot easier than winning races. All you need to do is treat us hacks with some respect, admit your mistakes when you make them, and be a human who operates at a fairly normal level.

Massa has never been great at any of those (remember how he claimed hitting the kerb that spun him off in Malaysia was not a 'mistake'!), and it's a great explanation for why he gets so much criticism for mistakes that other drivers would be excused for.

Yet on Sunday night at the Hungaroring, there was nothing but total respect for what he had done - more even than when he has actually won a race. On an afternoon that many had expected to be a Lewis Hamilton fest, Massa made us all sit up.

He delivered one of the best first corner moves in recent years, kept ahead of Hamilton until the McLaren driver's puncture, appeared to have things pretty much under control and was then cruising home for a fully-deserved victory when his engine went bang.

The tears welling up in his eyes in his post race press conference showed just how hard the turn of events had been to take - and we can only wonder what a difference those 10 points will make at the end of the season.

Speaking to F1 personnel in the paddock, or in town on Sunday night, everyone admitted how bad they felt for Massa. And almost all, myself included, said it was a new experience.

Now Raikkonen.

Just as everyone was impressed by Massa's driving in Hungary, so we were again underwhelmed by teammate Raikkonen's performance. The joke going around a quiet paddock was that if the low-beat atmosphere was explained by most F1 people already being on their summer holidays, Kimi had been on his since the Spanish GP.

Raikkonen has flattered to deceive in recent races - although somehow still being just five points off the world championship lead. The perception being put by those who watch F1 from the sidelines is that he has lost interest; but I'm not so convinced.

Kimi Raikkonen qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix © LAT

As recent races have gone on, and especially judging by the dramatic turnaround in form that we saw between Ferrari and McLaren at Hockenheim and in Hungary, I am becoming more and more convinced that car characteristics and the way the MP4-23 and F2008 deal with their tyres are having a bigger and bigger role in deciding races. And perhaps too, it can explain the dynamics between the two Ferrari drivers.

It's no secret that Ferrari struggle in qualifying. And when they do that, with the difficulty of overtaking in modern F1, it becomes hard for them to recover on race day even if they have the quickest car over the course of the afternoon - as Raikkonen's run of recent fastest laps emphasises.

The lack of qualifying speed is not only to do with tyre temperatures (the Ferrari tyres can operate as much as 10-degrees cooler than McLarens) but also the nature of the cars. The Ferrari often gets into understeer territory, with the McLaren more the oversteer way. When the grip is good, therefore, a car with oversteer should in theory be quicker than a neutral car, and especially one with understeer.

In racing conditions, however, the ideal characteristics change. An oversteering car will generate greater heat into its rears, wearing the tyres out more and making things less consistent. In a race, the understeer tendency should disappear to be replaced by a pretty ideal neutral characteristic.

So looking at Hungaroring qualifying, a slightly understeering Ferrari allied to the fronts graining left the Ferrari duo struggling with greater than normal understeer. Raikkonen's dislike of understeer is pronounced - and his frustrations probably resulted in him making the mistake that pitched him off the track and sixth overall.

Left down the grid, Raikkonen was trapped behind Fernando Alonso for much of the race, only showing us what his true potential was when he had a clear track after the second stops.

Raikkonen's seven fastest laps out of the last eight races shows there is little wrong on Sunday afternoons other than the grid position he is starting his race on. And with it becoming so clear that that is now the area he and the team must focus on, I have a suspicion that we should write Raikkonen off at our peril.

We did that after Fuji last year, and just look what happened. Massa may be the man we think about most at the moment, but I think Raikkonen will yet give Lewis Hamilton some sleepless nights this year.