Back to back races finish off the first half of the season, as Formula One heads rapidly towards its summer break. From the damp climate of Germany, we're heading towards the warm and yet humid conditions of Hungary, with teams eager to go into their enforced shutdown on a high. Fernando Alonso has the momentum after a convincing win at Hockenheim, and Ferrari will be keen to repeat the experience, but is the circuit going to be kind to the championship leader?

Event schedule

With Alonso heading up the driver's championship, and Red Bull keeping a firm grip on the constructor battle, things are still incredibly close. The gaps in qualifying can be next to nothing and the smallest mistake can be costly. We've also seen components start to suffer, as gearbox penalties hit no less than three drivers at the last race weekend. With everyone, including the cars, keen for a break, it's time for one last push to go into the summer on a high.

Support racing for this event includes GP2, GP3, and Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

The weather

The temperature is nice and high at the Hungaroring, but there's a chance of storms throughout the weekend, particularly on Sunday. Qualifying day looks as though it may escape the worst of the conditions, but with teams keen to get some dry running on Friday, they'll be hoping they might be luck for free practice as well. Rafts of updates keep being introduced to the cars since Silverstone, and so far they haven't had a moment's dry practice to get meaningful data from them.

Circuit map

This single DRS zone is situated at the last corner on the track, the sweeping right-hander of turn 14. With detection just before, and activation 70m after the apex, all the action happens in one corner as the drivers pull round onto the home straight to try and make the most of their opportunity.

Last year's race saw a mixture of wet and dry conditions, which hampers the availability of DRS. This weekend's weather forecast suggests the possibility of rain again, but we'll just have to wait and see!

The circuit

The Hungaroring has a reputation for providing us with dull racing action, although weekends are occasionally spiced up with other off-track or incident-related happenings. With the DRS and Pirelli combination, the 2011 race was a step in the right direction, and considering the way 2012 is going so far, there's nothing to suggest we will see a dull race this weekend.

The track offers up just one straight amongst a host of twisting corners, and grip is something that is never in abundance. Although there are support races going on at the weekend, the track doesn't see much use for the rest of the year, so it will take a while for the drivers to really make their mark.

The high temperatures will make the race just that bit more of an endurance race, although there has been a distinct lack of Safety Cars over the years, which means it isn't usually dragged out longer than necessary. Expected tyre strategy will include 3 or even 4 pit stops.

Tyre compounds

This time last year, Pirelli brought the soft and supersoft tyres to the Hungaroring but were thwarted by the rain allowing drivers to ignore any planned strategies. For this year, the tyre supplier have opted for a more conservative option, bringing the soft and medium compounds to the second race weekend in a row.

Hungary will provide a very stark contrast to the circuits that we have just come from, being the slowest permanent track on the calendar. This does not make it any less demanding on the tyres though: in fact a twisty and slippery circuit will often put more heat through the tyre than a fast and flowing layout as the tyre is moving around more – particularly when the ambient temperatures are high.

- Paul Hembery

Press conference schedule

Official press conferences are organised by the FIA and happen four times during the weekend. The qualifying and post race press conferences will take place after the television unilateral interviews.

Race stewards

The FIA stewarding process was changed last year to include a former F1 driver to give added insight. These are the stewards overseeing this weekend's action.