McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, a surprise winner last weekend in Germany, continued to shine when he was fastest in both practice sessions on Friday for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Briton Hamilton has won twice at the Hungaroring and showed his love of the ageing circuit in the hills outside Budapest by setting the pace on a cloudy day with the fastest lap of one minute 21.018 seconds in the second session.
He edged out 30-year-old birthday boy Fernando Alonso of Ferrari in his second workout with Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's race set to be close affairs again after last weekend's nail-biting German Grand Prix.
World champion Sebastian Vettel, second fastest in first practice, was fifth quickest in the second session.
Controversial move
In a shocking announcement on Friday, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone made it clear that for the first time in the modern era the sport would not be entirely available to a free-to-air broadcaster.
His plan is for coverage of all the F1 races in 2012 and beyond to be shared between the BBC and Sky, a move that will see Sky offering all the races on its subscription channels and the BBC broadcasting only half of the races.
Indian GP on April 22
The 2012 calendar confirmed the Indian Grand Prix for a second year — it will be held on April 22 — and the dropping of the Turkish GP. There will be only eight races in Europe.
The proposed 2012 calendar: March 18: Australian GP; March 25: Malaysian GP; April 8: Chinese GP; April 22: Indian GP; May 13: Spanish GP; May 27: Monaco GP; June 10: Canadian GP; June 24: European GP; July 8: British GP; July 22: German GP; July 29: Hungarian GP; Sept. 2: Belgian GP; Sept. 9: Italian GP; Sept. 23: Singapore GP; Oct. 7: Japanese GP; Oct. 14: Korean GP; Oct. 28: Abu Dhabi GP; Nov. 4: Bahrain GP; Nov. 18: United States GP; Nov. 25: Brazilian GP.
