Alonso encouraged after practice

Spaniard Alonso had not set a time in the morning, preferring as usual to save his car's engine, but came out strongly in the afternoon.

The Renault driver, looking to fight back after three consecutive wins from Ferrari rival Michael Schumacher, was 1.3 second off the pace set my Schumacher's teammate Felipe Massa.

Despite that, Alonso was pleased with his progress.

"It was a good start to the weekend for me," said Alonso. "The conditions were very low grip today and that meant the car balance was quite inconsistent, but we managed to do our normal programme, get a feel for the tyre performance and start making some set-up changes.

"I was having some problems with the rear end to begin with, but we managed to calm it down during the session and we will carry on working in that direction tomorrow. The times seem competitive, so I think we are on the right track."

Italian teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was third fastest in that session after solving some early problems.

"I had a problem on my first lap when the traction control cut out on the exit of turn 7 and I half-spun," he said. "But we fixed it in the garage, and after that started the normal programme. It's much colder than usual here in Hungary, and that means the conditions are very low grip indeed, coming from the track but also the tyres.

"The car was quite tricky to drive because of this, but we made some good changes and need to do some more overnight. It is going to be a difficult weekend because of the conditions, but we seem to be in reasonable shape."