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McLaren maintained a diplomatic silence on rumours in the paddock yesterday that they are negotiating an exclusive deal with JCB to help Lewis Hamilton on those rare occasions when he needs to get himself back on to the track.
After his escapades in Germany, where his car was hoisted back on to terra firma after he slid into the gravel bed on the third lap of the rain-soaked European Grand Prix, the 22-year-old Englishman found his McLaren being retrieved by a trackside crane after he spun off the road in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
This incident rendered the afternoon session something of an oddity, as gravel he had deposited on the road prevented anyone else improving their times in the remaining five minutes.
Fernando Alonso's time of 1 minute 20.919 seconds, set with 51 of the 90 minutes remaining, held up as fastest until the end.
Alonso is optimistic about McLaren's chances. "Today was good and I am happy with the how the car feels so far," the Spaniard said. "I think we are in a good position and I am looking forward to the rest of the weekend, where we should continue to be strong."
The closest anyone got to Alonso was the Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen, whose 1:21.283 best Alonso had bettered. Hamilton was right behind the Finn with 1:21.338, and it was while he was trying to improve on that, now running on the supersoft Bridgestone tyres, that he spun.
Going into turn nine he got caught out by the tardy new Spyker driver Sakon Yamamoto, and went into a slide on a surface that was still very slippery after weeks of disuse. Hamilton caught that slide, but not a second one, and spun into the gravel. He was unable to continue, and his car was taken away by crane. But in the overall scheme of things it meant nothing.
"Today went smoothly, apart from my spin towards the end of the second session, which meant that I missed out on my last run, so maybe I could have gone faster," he said. "The spin happened as I was catching Yamamoto on a flying lap and I was probably a little too fast going into the corner. "
The world championship points leader was not the only driver to be caught out. Teenage German rookie Sebastian Vettel, who has taken the place of the American Scott Speed at Toro Rosso, went off twice, as did his team-mate Tonio Liuzzi. BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, Alonso, Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, and the two Ferrari drivers, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, were also among those who either left the road or spun.
"This was not an easy day as the track was evolving through both sessions," Liuzzi said. "The track surface had a lot of 'marbles' on it and it was difficult to complete a good, clean lap, as can be seen by the fact that many people made some mistakes."
In the end it was Nico Rosberg who wound up fourth for Williams with 1:21.485, ahead of Heidfeld on 1:21.517. The better Ferrari was Raikkonen's down in an unusual sixth place on 1:21.589, but he had seemed set to record a faster time until he encountered David Coulthard in his Red Bull on his last lap.
Though the positions didn't necessarily reflect it, Ferrari are confident that they are in better shape on this maximum downforce track than they were at the last one they visited, Monaco back in May.
But Raikkonen admitted: "I am not very happy with the handling of my car in these two sessions and obviously we have a lot to do in order to improve."
Raikkonen's team-mate, Felipe Massa, was seventh on 1:21.620. "In the final series of laps I could have done a good time but there was a yellow flag and I had to slow."
The Brazilian spun in the final corner on his last attempt at a quick lap. Fisichella was eighth in the second Renault in 1:21.698, and the top 10 was completed by Toyota's Jarno Trulli on 1:21.857 and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica on 1:21.906.
