With just a week separating the German and Hungarian grand prix, there can be no better time for a team to have lept to the front of the field. Even though it might have been overshadowed, the fact is that Ferrari walked the Hockenheim race – and with very little time for rivals to catch up, expectations in the camp will be just as sky high as the controversy created over the issue of team orders.

Whilst the Hungaroring may boast different qualities to the German track, Ferrari must be looking towards a big points scoring showing. The track is tight, twisting and unrelenting, filled with corner after corner, ensuring that the drivers can never afford to take their eye off the ball or their pedal from the metal. Given the huge downforce advantage that Red Bull have shown this season, demonstrated most memorably with a 1-2 at the similar Monaco circuit, then it could be seen that the energy drink manufacturer goes in as favourites.

But Ferrari stole the baton at Hockenheim; Mark Webber qualified a whole second ahead of Fernando Alonso at Spain, but yet the Spaniard was only 0.002 behind Sebastian Vettel last weekend, suggesting the team has finally found some much needed one lap pace, along with obvious car improvements. The Scuderia also stole the attention of the media, with all the post-race discussions being centered around whether Felipe Massa is a second driver – a conversation that since Turkey had been limited to team rankings within Red Bull.

Realistically the issue isn’t even a major issue; Alonso has been number 1 this season because he has been consistently quicker than the Brazilian. Whilst Massa’s German performance will have encouraged those at the team worried by his weak points total (he still sits behind Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica in the standings, even though they have both have realistically less competitive cars all season), he did visibly struggle on the harder tyre. If Alonso had held early track position over Felipe, you sense he could’ve taken the last GP with a 15 or 20 second gap in his pocket. But sometimes the ‘dirty air zone’ forced by aerodynamics can really hold a driver at bay – demonstrated by Mark Webber’s Bahrain GP, when Vettel still beat him with a broken car, due to the advantages of having an open race in clean air. And a better qualifying session.

Massa believed he could’ve won last years Hungary race, had it not been for the horror accident when meeting a spring from Rubens Barrichello’s suspension literally head-on. He’ll be looking to slay those demons with a good showing, but whether he’s allowed to stay ahead of Alonso, or even if he can drive quicker than the double world champ, is another issue altogether.

Ferrari’s effort to save their season may have come in just in the nick of time, with wins back on their agenda. McLaren appear to be slower than the Maranello outfit, so it is imperative that Fernando Alonso withers their championship lead. The team were ruthless in making sure Alonso scored the maximum at Germany – I can certainly think of worse approaches to winning a championship.

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