Lotus ace Romain Grosjean expressed his satisfaction after setting the third fastest time in yesterday’s practice sessions ahead of tomorrow’s race at the Hungaroring.

However, teammate and title contender Kimi Raikkonen, was eighth after being held up by McLaren’s Jenson Button on his fastest lap.

The Finn, from the Enstone-based team, was third in the first session.

World champion Sebastian Vettel was the fastest in both sessions ahead of Red Bull teammate Mark Webber.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was fourth, followed by Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Pastor Maldonado from the Grove-based Williams was 10th and 13th in his two sessions. Teammate Valtteri Bottas was 12th and 19th.

“It’s been a good day overall,” said Grosjean. “I didn’t try the new tyres at Silverstone, so the main focus was to work on getting the most from them. “To be honest, they’re not really night and day from the old ones, which is good as it means we haven’t had to change too much.

“Our pace looks pretty good on both compounds, but the field is quite close so it’s hard to say where we are.”

Raikkonen added: “It wasn’t ideal today, but it wasn’t that bad either. “I had some traffic and so wasn’t able to set a fast lap on new tyres.

“We’ll try to do the best that we can in qualifying and see where we are.”

Pastor Maldonado added: “It wasn’t a bad day for us as our performance looked better than at previous events compared to the times posted today.

“We will analyse the data and try to close the gap.”