Out on the twisting Hungaroring circuit the teams indulged in the usual display of shadow play; inside the motor-homes and offices the same tortuous games were being played, but over drivers not cars. Last week a barrage of rumour had placed Prost driver Jarno Trulli at Jordan in 2000, but yesterday Eddie Jordan said that several drivers were still in the frame for Damon Hill's soon-to-be-vacant seat.

He fired in a counter-punch aimed squarely at Trulli's advisors. "Whilst I might be going down one road at this moment it could be quite different by this time next week," he said. While Trulli is still expected to sign for the team, both sides are indulging in bouts of contractual shadow boxing, with Trulli claiming he might stay at Prost.

"At the moment I would like to stay. I feel good in this team. I feel I have a good relationship with the team, especially with Alain (Prost), and I work well with my engineer. But we are not getting the right results." Ferrari's stand-in number two, Mika Salo, still remains as an outside possibility, though he has, it seems, six offers in Formula One to weigh up, apparently including an offer from Ferrari. "Maybe I won't take any of them!" he joked.

Outside, Jordan's current driver line-up struggled with the initially dusty conditions of the twisting Hungaroring. Both cars were running with centre-mounted aerofoils and modified front wings in an effort to boost the downforce that is essential on the slow and slippery circuit, and appeared to make heavy weather of it, although both drivers were pleased with the feel of the car.

"We did some good work and ran trouble-free in both sessions," said Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who finished the day sixth, just under two-tenths of a second behind Salo. "The car feels good and there is only some fine-tuning to do. I'm pretty confident." Damon Hill found the struggle even harder, his 12th spot of the morning sagging to 16th by the end of a second session which had seen him plough his car into the tyre walls at the final turn. "I feel like I have gone from Roadrunner to the Wile E Coyote," he said. "Nothing I do seems to work. It has been very, very frustrating this season."

He added: "Sooner or later my luck has got to change. I am doing my best to do what I can for Eddie and the team." In contrast, Eddie Irvine looked composed and comfortable in his Ferrari, running with a modified version of the high downforce package that saw Michael Schumacher and himself take a one-two in Monaco. The Irish driver swapped quickest laps with arch-rival Mika Hakkinen throughout the morning and afternoon stints but after a mid-afternoon trip into the gravel traps Hakkinen was sidelined and Irvine seized the opportunity to notch the day's fastest lap in the dying seconds, just three-tenths of a second quicker than the Finn.

"The car was good right from the start and we made at least two major steps forward during the session," Irvine said.