Rubens Barrichello in seventh place and Michael Schumacher, 24th and last is how Scuderia Ferrari ended the first day of practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The World Champion had to sit out the afternoon session, after an alternator left him stranded out on the track when he had completed just one lap.

Then, at the very end of the second session, Barrichello also had to abandon his car at the side of the race track, after he spun off, his F2005 ending parked against the barrier.

However, despite what looks on the surface like a problematic day, the mood in the Scuderia Ferrari camp could be described as upbeat for two reasons: firstly in terms of pace and performance, the two drivers feel they are looking more competitive than they had expected to be here and secondly, despite the fact that Michael lost almost one hour of track time, his Brazilian team-mate was able to complete the entire planned tyre evaluation programme to the extent that drivers and engineers reckon they have a good idea of which type of tyre to choose for the rest of the weekend.

Today has been characterised by even higher temperatures than usual at what is traditionally considered one of the hottest races of the season, but as Barrichello has pointed out, the conditions are just the same for everyone. Whether they will be the same for everyone’s tyres is a question that will not be answered until the closing stages of Sunday’s race. As is often the case on the first day of practice it was those drivers who only run on Friday who topped the time sheet: Ricardo Zonta was quickest for Toyota, with Alex Wurz second for McLaren-Mercedes. But these two teams are evidently on good form, as their race drivers filled the rest of the top six. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was third ahead of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher, with Juan Pablo Montoya sixth.

Jean Todt: “As usual on a Friday, we concentrated on finding the best set-up for the cars and carrying out a comparison of the two types of tyre that Bridgestone has made available to us. The day was marked by very high temperatures, but that is nothing new here at the Hungaroring. At the start of the second session, an electrical problem on Michael’s car prevented him from running in the second hour of free practice.

"This meant all the work was centred on Rubens who completed the programme we gave him. Of course, it is hard to make predictions this early in the weekend, but what we can say is that we have seen encouraging signs, even though we were down to just one car this afternoon.”
 

Rubens Barrichello: “This has been a very useful day in terms of what we have learnt about the tyres and how the car behaves at this circuit. I think we are more competitive here than we expected to be. The fact that it is very hot makes this a tough weekend, but it’s the same for everyone. I am looking forward to the rest of the weekend. As for my incident at the end of the session, I was trying a slightly different set-up which obviously did not work, as I ran a little bit wide over the kerb. This meant the car was airborne, so from then on I was just a passenger.”

Michael Schumacher: “Our performance does not look too bad for a Friday. My problem was an electrical one, so the only real damage is the fact I was unable to run in the second session. Of course, that is not very helpful but fortunately, Rubens had a good day and thanks to the data he acquired I think we know what we want to do in terms of tyres. Because I did so few laps, I will also have to see what I can learn from Rubens’ set-up, although of course I have done enough laps of this track to know what is required! It is hard to know what to expect in qualifying. As usual, strategy will be very important and I think ours will look more towards the race than to qualifying.”

Ross Brawn: “Michael’s car suffered from an alternator failure. We don’t know why at the moment. From what we can see from the data, it just stopped working, which meant the car was stranded out on the track. It was a shame as he had just begun his proper tyre comparison over a longer run. Rubens had a good programme today, taking an initial look at both types of tyre in the morning session. He also did two long runs this afternoon and thanks to his excellent work, we have plenty of information on which to base our tyre choice for tomorrow and Sunday. At this point, it looks pretty clear which tyre we want to use.”

Free practice - First session: Rubens Barrichello: 2nd 1.22.834 8 laps chassis 246; Michael Schumacher: 5th 1.23.234 8 laps chassis 245; Temperatures: air 32/33°C, track 42/44 °C

Free practice – Second session: Rubens Barrichello: 7th 1.21.914 23 laps chassis 246; Michael Schumacher: 24th - 1 lap chassis 245; Temperatures: air 34/35°C, track 47/48°C