Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel admitted that it was looking tight at the top in Hungary this weekend.
He finished the day second-fastest in afternoon practice at the Hungaroring. He was less than two tenths off the best time of the day set by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
"I think it looks very close," Vettel said after the end of the day's track action, adding that it was difficult to know what to expect.
"Friday is always a different story," he said. "But it should be close, so it should be good fun."
With Red Bull upping its game with new aero upgrades this weekend, Vettel admitted that Ferrari also "needs to make a step forward" overnight.
"This morning I didn't really get into rhythm, but this afternoon was better," he said. "We tried to play around a little bit with the car, with the set-up.
"We tried some things which I think gave us a direction, so we should know what to do for tomorrow."
Vettel insisted that Ferrari wasn't on the back foot as a result of the FIA clamping down on rules including burning oil to boost engine power.
"I think it's testimony to the great work that's been going on [at Ferrari]," he suggested. "People start to look at your car from a different angle and try to ban your car rather than ignore your car."
"That's good news for us, something we can be proud of," he added. "We shouldn't get distracted by it."
Vettel's team mate Kimi Raikkonen was second fastest in the morning, but slipped back a little after lunch and was fourth in FP2.
"We started pretty well in the morning, second practice was a bit more tricky," Raikkonen concurred. ""We tried some things, it probably wasn't ideal. It still wasn't bad.
"Conditions were quite difficult, with red flags and stuff like that," he pointed out. "Not so much running as we had hoped because of the few stoppages. But nonetheless it is not too bad."
The Finn said he would have to wait and see how he fared on Saturday before he knew whether he had a car good enough to fight for pole.
"I don't know anything more. Tomorrow, we'll see after qualifying where we are."
Raikkonen did have one scare early in the afternoon session when the power cut out on his SF70H. He was able to reboot the onboard systems and get back underway.
"It was the throttle control for a little while and then it came back," he explained. "It was not a major issue. If you stop on the circuit, it's not ideal, but it sorted itself out."
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