Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel remained the fastest driver in Friday practice this afternoon, as the German set a time of 1m20.087s, almost a full second quicker than his morning practice time that put him top. This time around however, the closest driver to him was Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, as the Spaniard began to show the F10's potential on the twisty Hungaroring circuit.

Even though conditions had improved between the first and second sessions, drivers were still exploring the run-off areas of the Budapest track throughout the ninety minutes, particularly at the turn 4 left-hander at which Felipe Massa crashed heavily last year. Despite the numerous 'offs' however, they all kept their cars from damage and out of the barriers.

Most of the session was spent tyre-testing the super-soft and medium compound tyres, the task being aided considerably by the dry conditions, despite rain having been forecast for the afternoon.

Alonso's time of 1m20.584s was almost half a second slower than Vettel's fastest, but represents a marked improvement from the morning session when Fernando was down in seventh place, 1.7 seconds adrift. Completing the top three this afternoon was Mark Webber in the second Red Bull having set a time of 1m20.597s, while Brazil's Felipe Massa took fourth on a 1m20.986s.

Next on the list was Renault's Vitaly Petrov (1m21.195s), beating team-mate Robert Kubica (1m21.375s) by two tenths, while Lewis Hamilton (1m21.308s) was the meat in the Renault sandwich in sixth. Nico Hülkenberg (1m21.623s), Jenson Button (1m21.730s) and Michael Schumacher (1m21.773s) rounded out the top ten.

11th place went to BMW Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa (1m21.809s), less than a tenth ahead of Williams' Rubens Barrichello (1m21.844s). Elsewhere, the Toro Rosso and Force India drivers struggled, with Jaime Alguersuari the best-placed Toro Rosso in 15th and Adrian Sutil the best-placed Force India in 16th.

Of the new teams, Lotus continued to win that battle, with Jarno Trulli clocking a time of 1m24.553s, over eight tenths ahead of the nearest Virgin, Timo Glock on a 1m25.376s. Heikki Kovalainen failed to complete a representative time after getting sidelined for almost the entire session with hydraulic problems. Hispania Racing's Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto were closely matched, but finished over a second behind Virgin's Lucas Di Grassi.