Mark Hughes: Trackside View

Turn 10, 170mph approach, down three gears over the bumps as quickly as it takes to think 7-6-5-4 and into the slightly uphill turn, skimming the striped section of the inner kerb. Further inside the stripes is a green painted section, covered in rubber streaks.

But not F1 rubber, for this green part is too high for F1 ride height. It's possible to use it, but it doesn't pay you back, loses you more in upset than it finds in shortcut. Just hustle up to that stripey edge, car locked in place by the downforce and the turn's camber.

Lewis Hamilton is on a long run and is leaning very hard on the car through here, but it's Friday afternoon and he's still experimenting with lines. He tries a later turnin but it pushes him wide, spits him out of the camber's grip trap groove.

Next he tries some of the forbidden green kerb. He's new, has his own ideas, needs to find things for himself his own way. He isn't ready to simply accept the convention. We saw the same with his relentless wheel-brushing of the turn 13 wall at Indy. Next time through he's back on the classic line but with a very high entry speed.

It gives him a brief moment of mid-corner understeer and, as a result, his exit leaves him on the outside of the corner longer than he ideally wants to be, compromises his entry into the following downhill Bit Kurve.

Next time he remains on the standard line but sacrifices some entry speed and is able to get on the power earlier - well before the apex - as a result. The car is happier with that and it's no longer understeering but loading up hard at the front and allowing him to really nail it. He's back to where he started from, in other words, but at least he's tried the alternatives, knows why they don't work.

Fernando Alonso is beginning his long run just as Hamilton is finishing his, but there's a few laps of overlap, enough to study the difference in style. Into the same corner Alonso too is taking in big speed but he's picking up shallow understeer almost immediately. But it's a stable understeer, not a snowballing one.

He has it all the way through the turn, but is able to lean hard on the outside front regardless, without it increasing. He's driving to this balance. It looks easier, more repeatable than Hamilton's style, less on edge. But it's probably harder on the front tyres. He's settled into this style, instantly into a rhythm.

It's a little snapshot into the places they are at - the rookie and the double world champ fighting for the title.