Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher finished a distant if relieved second in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, 35.581s behind McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen after 70 hot laps. Michael was just ahead of brother Ralf Schumacher, who in turn led home Toyota teammate Jarno Trulli by 18s. Rubens Barrichello finished tenth after having to pit for a new nose cone following a first lap incident.

Michael shot straight into the lead from front row neighbour Juan Pablo Montoya but from fourth on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen was soon past his teammate and into second place. Trulli dropped a place to fourth, while Ralf Schumacher remained fifth, was but hit by Fernando Alonso on one side, while Rubens Barrichello ran into the back of Trulli. Both Alonso and Barrichello had to pit for repairs, but the Toyotas survived. Jenson Button came round in sixth, up from eighth, while teammate Takuma Sato was up three places to seventh and Nick Heidfeld was up four places to eighth.

At the front, Michael led Raikkonen by 1.9s after the first lap, but that soon shrank to less than a second by lap seven. They were steadily drawing away from Montoya in third place, who was around three seconds ahead of Trulli who was finding his car difficult to drive after the Barrichello assault. Teammate Ralf Schumacher wasn’t far behind.

Raikkonen was by far the earlier to pit on lap 11, although Trulli came in on lap 13. Michael and brother Ralf pitted on lap 15 which gave the lead to Montoya who was on a different strategy. The effect of these pit stops was that Montoya now led, from a distant Michael who was 1.6s ahead of Raikkonen. Button was up to fourth place, from Ralf who was fifth, having overtaken teammate Trulli during the pit stops. Montoya pitted on lap 22, Button on lap 23 which dropped them to third and eighth respectively. Michael now led, but once again, Raikkonen was right on his tail. Montoya had rejoined just a couple of seconds behind, but would progressively drop back. Then came the Toyotas.

Trulli and Ralf were the first to stop of the three stoppers on laps 33 and 35 respectively, resuming in the reverse order as before. Michael was next to stop on lap 36 and Kimi a lap later. Michael would take on enough fuel for 21 laps, but Kimi only took on enough for 11 – which allowed him to come out ahead of Michael and from there, he just pulled away. Montoya pitted on lap 41 to retire with broken transmission, which promoted Ralf to third place, and Trulli to fourth. Fifth was Button and then came the two Williams', with Heidfeld ahead of teammate Mark Webber, the pair having got ahead of Sato.

After their third stops, Ralf caught brother Michael in the closing stages, but the Ferrari driver was confident he could stay ahead and did so. Further back, Sato came under pressure from Giancarlo Fisichella who had two off-course excursions, but he had to make a late pit stop, allowed the Japanese driver to score his first points of the season. Barrichello never recovered from his early pit stop, and finished tenth.

Jean Todt: “With Michael, we got the best result we could, after he drove a great race. In the early stages, Michael pushed with a frenetic pace, confirming the performance level he showed yesterday, especially as he was not giving away much to the other drivers in terms of fuel load.
 

It’s a shame that our pace over the longer distance is still not good enough to fight for the win right to the end. From around halfway, Michael had to deal with the same problem – a gradual loss of grip – that he experienced in Hockenheim. Rubens’ race was compromised after the start when he collided with Trulli and had to pit to change the damaged nose on his F2005. Now we have to work out, along with our technical partners, first and foremost Bridgestone and Shell, how we can maintain the pace we have in the early stages throughout the entire race, while keeping the level of qualifying performance which we showed on Saturday.”

Michael Schumacher: “I am happy with this result, which is a good reward for all the work the team has put in over the last few months. I was pretty happy with my pace in the early stages and there was not much between mine and Kimi’s, especially when you consider he was running lighter. But then the pace from the tyres got slower, even though they were still consistent.

"After that, it was really the pit stops that decided it. If I could have come in at the same time or later than Kimi, then maybe, given how hard it is to overtake here, I might have been able to win. In the closing stages, Ralf got closer, but by then, I was just looking after my tyres and I only went as quick as I needed to keep him behind me. We have made a step in the right direction. It is clear where we have to improve and we will keep on working, but we now seem to have improved our qualifying and early pace.”

Rubens Barrichello: “I was a bit unlucky to get caught up in a big fight at the end of the straight. All of a sudden, the pack almost stopped and as I tried to slow down, I locked a wheel and went straight into the back of Trulli. I am really sorry for the team, because today we had a better car and a much better tyre, even though there is still room to improve. Without the incident, I think we could have got both cars on the podium, because I had a good strategy.”

Ross Brawn: “With Michael, we had a pretty good race and I don’t think there is much more we could have done. In the first part of the race, we pushed as hard as we could, but once we knew it would not be enough, from then on we changed our approach and simply managed the situation to ensure we did not become vulnerable later in the race. The tyres held up quite well. We had a good strategy today and I don’t know how we could have beaten Kimi because he was so quick. But we have made progress and if we can continue to do so then maybe we can have a strong end to the season. Of course, it was disappointing that Rubens got caught out at the beginning. On a track like this, pitting for a front wing and compromising the strategy makes life very difficult.”

Michael Schumacher: 2nd +35.581 70 laps chassis 245; Rubens Barrichello: 10th +1 lap 69 laps chassis 246; Temperatures: air 34 °C, track 46/48 °C