And it is a 1:21.584 for Nico Rosberg, nudging him 1.5s clear of Lewis Hamilton, who is just about to emerge on the supersofts.

Two cars are out on the track at the moment - Esteban Ocon and Nico Rosberg, the latter sporting some supersofts on his Mercedes. Let's see what he can do on the red-walled tyres.

One person who you imagine will definitely be keeping an eye on Esteban Ocon is Jolyon Palmer.

Briton Palmer has a one-year contract at Renault, while Ocon is eyeing a race seat for next year.

1) Rosberg 2) Hamilton 3) Ricciardo 4) Verstappen 5) Button 6) Vettel 7) Raikkonen 8) Hulkenberg 9) Alonso 10) Perez

There was some speculation that rain might make an appearance on race day in Budapest, but our latest forecast suggests what rain there is going to be will arrive today, albeit light and among some very warm and sunny spells.

Massive lock up for Jenson Button heading into Turn One and he is swiftly onto the radio: "We have to look a the bottoming into Turn One. Can you see if it is actually bottoming there, it felt like it."

We're halfway through the session and everyone is back in the pits to hand back their extra set of tyres.

There's 21 times up on the timing screen, with Felipe Nasr the only driver yet to complete a timed lap.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Hungaroring

Daniel Ricciardo is experiencing something new this year - a team-mate who is beginning to regularly beat him, at least in races. Max Verstappen has now finished ahead of the Australian in three of the last four grands prix, and has out-scored him since he joined Red Bull at the Spanish Grand Prix, even if that is largely to do with the strategy call in Spain and pit error in Monaco that deprived Ricciardo of what seemed almost certain wins. 

In qualifying, Ricciardo has only been out-paced once all year - at Silverstone last time out. But suddenly he is being asked lots of uncomfortable questions. So far, he is handling them well, saying being out-pointed is “not a concern”. 

He added: “Obviously I'm aware he's done very well, had the win and the podiums. I don't like looking back to be honest but, sure, I could have had at least one win. He's been competitive and it's not been that I've had all the bad luck and he's had all the good luck. He's been quick and he's put himself there. I won't ever make excuses if he's beaten me fair and square. I think generally he’s been quick – unfortunately he's scored more than me! But I've got a few races now to close that up.”

Andy Smith: Ban all the switches in the car so the driver can just get on with it and let them talk about anything on the radio. The car would need to be set up in the pits first by the mechanics

Philip Stothers: If people want simplicity there's a thing called Go-Karting. This is F1 for goodness sake it takes skill to drive these cars.  

And the little tussle with the two Mercedes continues as Nico Rosberg jumps back into P1, clocking a 1:22.801 to go two tenths quicker than his team-mate.

The two are more than a second clear of the rest of the field, with Daniel Ricciardo's 1:23.940 currently the third quickest time.

Big lock up for Lewis Hamilton at the right hander at Turn 15 as the reigning world champion explores the limits of the track. No major drama, though, as he subsequently retakes P1 from Nico Rosberg with a 1:23.464.  

Times are improving all the time and Nico Rosberg takes over in P1 after a 1:24.088 on the softs. Behind him are Daniel Ricciardo, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen, who is out on super softs.

Kris Foster: Will all these people still want a return to "classic" F1 when they realise the cars are slower?

Elias Skaff: I don’t think #F1, external in a bad shape, we are having fantastic races this season.   

Leo: No. We're not living in the 80s anymore. Get over this ridiculous concept that F1 used to be something it never has been.  

Sure enough, Lewis Hamilton - on softs - goes quickest with 1:26.106. Several other drivers get up and running with a timed lap, with Sebastian Vettel currently second quickest after a 1:26.363.

Image source, Getty Images

Valtteri Bottas run out on the softs sees our first timed lap of the session pop up on the timing board as he clocks a 1:26.711.

The Williams' driver's switch to the softs has seen pretty much the rest of the field follow suit, so expect a few more times to come in shortly.

We've been discussing the current state of F1 and whether rules, regulations and technology has led to it becoming more complicated. 

Sebastian Vettel has said he'd like to see the sport go back to a simpler time, while Fernando Alonso believes there is so little difference between the current cars that is you painted them all black, you wouldn't know which team they were.

For a reminder of how it looks when you get variety throughout the field, here's a selection of cars from the 1976 season...

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Hungaroring

These are worrying times at Williams. After finishing third in the constructors’ championship for the last two seasons, their form has slipped this year. They are down to fourth this year and coming under pressure for that from Force India. The suspicion in the paddock is that as the engines have become more equal, the weaknesses in Williams’ chassis are showing up more readily. 

Felipe Massa admitted they were looking to try to find some answers this weekend. “Silverstone and Austria were definitely very disappointing races and we are trying to understand why things did not work in a proper way,” the Brazilian said. “I hope we get back to the points and be as competitive as we believe we are. We don’t believe we can be very competitive here but we are working hard to make the car in the way it can be. We have tested a lot of new parts and need to understand what is the right combination use. We will try to test a lot of things on Friday.”

Inters have been the order of the day so far but Valtteri Bottas has decided to head out for an exploratory lap on the softs,