Peter‏: Sirotkin, definitely. Buying a seat is great for the team, rubbish for the spectators and fans.

Callum S: Biggest underperformer for me has been Vandoorne. Scored points in the first three races and then never again, and routinely being beaten by teammate Alonso, in both qualifying and races. Honourable mentions too to Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean, both of whom aren’t making the most of their rather good cars.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at the Hungaroring

Stoffel Vandoorne has had a torrid time in the last couple of races at McLaren, his car with some mysterious problem that was costing it downforce compared to that of team-mate Fernando Alonso. In an attempt to fix it, the Belgian has been given a replacement chassis this weekend - not a brand new one, but one he had previously used in the season. “The team are making every effort to understand the problem,” Vandoorne said.

McLaren have some aerodynamic upgrades here - their first significant ones since Spain back in early May. Alonso said he thought the lack of development was the main reason they had dropped back since Monaco and that this first session would be focused more on validating the new upgrade rather than the bigger-picture research they have been doing on Fridays recently, which was aimed at understanding problems that are not showing up in the wind tunnel but which Alonso admitted had “compromised qualifying a little”.

McLaren hope to be back towards the front of the midfield group on a track more suited to their car but Alonso admitted that the circuit characteristics would mean Renault, particularly, would be strong.

Image source, Getty Images

Last time out we had the white mediums, yellow softs and purple ultrasofts. This weekend? Same again.

Bob McFeil: Ericsson has been the biggest disappointment for me this year. Sixth year in F1, outperformed by Leclerc in his 1st year, just not done well at all.

Kimi Raikkonen, who has often performed well in free practice sessions only for a then disappointing qualifying session, is our new leader with a lap of 1:18.762.

Red Bull have won in Hungary twice before - in 2014 with Daniel Ricciardo and in 2010 with Mark Webber.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

This is Red Bull's best chance for a while but they have to make it work. But have they fallen too far away in development in recent weeks?

Verstappen thinks the track will suit Red Bull, and they are the first team to set down times. Verstappen has a lap of 1:19.280 with Ricciardo a 1:19.556.

Image source, Getty Images

Esteban Ocon is in good form, with points finishes in five of the past six races.

No times from anyone just yet, so let's have a quick look at what some of the drivers were saying on social media.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at the Hungaroring

There was much discussion on Thursday about the team orders imposed by Mercedes on their drivers after a brief battle following the re-start at the German Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas said he got the call as he entered the Stadium, and admitted that by that time Lewis Hamilton had already established a lead that might have been decisive.

“In all honesty, I think kind of the biggest of the battle was already there, at least, that lap as it is very tricky to follow,” the Finn said. “We’re in similar cars. OK, there was a little bit of a tyre difference but the last sector is extremely difficult to follow and it is just unknown if I would have had any other opportunities or not. Maybe, maybe not.”

Hamilton said he was confident he could have held on. "After Turn Eight I had finally got ahead and he didn’t really have much of a chance after that because we were coming into a section where it was quite easy to follow, which is the most difficult part of that track.

“The cool thing is afterwards when we were in the meeting room, (team boss) Toto (Wolff) said: ‘Come over.’ And Valtteri was like, ’It’s fine because by the time he gave the order, he had already pulled away.’ So it wasn’t like he’d told him while we were in battle. Of course the fans want to see us keep racing. I had pretty good pace through that Sunday and it is not an easy track to overtake - Sebastian (Vettel) who was quick in the first part of the race couldn’t overtake Kimi (Raikkonen). That’s how it would have been pictured if we had been left to fight it out to the end.”

Image source, Getty Images

Nineteen of the usual 20, with Antonio Giovinazzi, who came in for Marcus Ericsson last week, is now coming in for Charles Leclerc at this session.

The Italian is certainly keen. He is the first man out there for our 90 minute session.

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

We are live on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra right now so click on the play button at the top to listen to Jack Nicholls, Jolyon Palmer and Jennie Gow.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at the Hungaroring

Ferrari come into this weekend as favourites. And Red Bull are hopeful of being in the fight for victory, their lack of speed on the straights compensated for by their downforce and speed in the corners.

But Lewis Hamilton is far from giving up. “I am here with the mindset that I need to get on the front row,” the world champion said. “P1 is my goal but I don’t know what my car is going to be feeling like until practice.

"And as I said we have already seen the Ferrari’s performance and they have taken a big step in qualifying particularly. But actually last year in the race I was the quickest but I couldn’t overtake them.”

Image source, Getty Images

We are now into the second half of the season so a good chance to assess the drivers of 2018 so far.

For our debate today, we want you to pick one of the drivers and give us your verdict on their season so far. What have you liked or disliked about their season? Are they under-performing or over achieving? Who has been your star / flop of the season?

Let's see if we can have entries on all 20 drivers. As always, include your reasons why.

Tweet us using the hashtag #bbcf1 and get involved.

And these are those drivers in places 11-20...

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This is how things stand in the championship so far...

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