Fernando Alonso pulled out a stunning lap to grab pole position as the Michelin runners once again dominated around a hot and dusty Hungaroring. Ralf Schumacher, fresh from winning his appeal with the FIA over the first corner incident in Germany, set the closest time to the Spanish Renault driver and lines up on the outside of the front row.

Mark Webber had another terrific session in the Jaguar, third quickest, while championship contender, Juan Pablo Montoya, who had topped the timesheets for much of the session eventually took fourth.

Rubens Barrichello was fastest Bridgestone runner in fifth as the Ferraris struggled to find an ideal set up. Jarno Trulli was sixth, despite running last, his lap was out of sorts and he was a second slower than his pole winning team mate.

McLaren had a poor session, the early running Kimi Raikkonen's time steadily dropped down the order and he lines up in seventh, while team mate David Coulthard again suffered in the one lap qualifying and starts two places further back. In between them World Championship leader Michael Schumacher has the most work to do as the pressure cranks up for the closing races.

FERRARI QUALIFYING REPORT

Third and fourth row for Ferrari, Alonso grabs the pole 

Jean Todt: 

"It was a disappointing qualifying. After this morning's free practice and the warm-up, I thought that getting both our cars onto the top three rows of the grid was within our grasp. Unfortunately, that is not how things turned out, with Rubens fifth - with the same lap time as Montoya - and Michael eighth. It is clear that in this situation, we can expect a difficult race, considering that despite the changes to the layout, there are few overtaking opportunities. We will do our all to get the best result possible." 

Rubens Barrichello: 

"It was a rather difficult qualifying session and it was surprising to see Alonso and Webber so quick. I am happy with my own lap, as it was the best I could do, especially as I had a bit of understeer at the end of the lap. I am quite hopeful that our tyre choice will be good for the race tomorrow. Given how dirty the track is here off the racing line, I think that fifth place might actually be better than fourth for the start. The changes to the track do seem to make overtaking a bit more of a possibility than in the past. A lot will depend on everyone's race pace and the different strategy choices. I am still in a positive frame of mind." 

Michael Schumacher: 

"Obviously, I am a bit disappointed, because this morning and in the warm-up, I seemed to be on the same pace as the others and the car felt good. Now we have to try and understand why our qualifying time did not match our expectations. The outcome of the race will now depend on strategy, which is always the key factor at this circuit and the Scuderia has usually done a good job on this front. Anything can happen tomorrow afternoon, so now all we can do is look ahead." 

Ross Brawn: 

"I am not very happy with the result of this session as I thought we were going to do better than we did. Michael did not feel he had the same level of grip which he had found during the warm-up and had too much understeer towards the end of his run. We did not really optimise the car and the tyres for qualifying. It is disappointing, because up until now, the cars had been going well this weekend. Rubens had very good first and second sectors but then also had too much understeer in the third sector. Now we have to wait and see what we can do tomorrow." 

Rubens Barrichello: 5th 1.22.180 3 laps  chassis 232 
Michael Schumacher: 8th  1.22.755 3 laps  chassis 231