Free practice 4: Ferrari still well ahead

Kimi Raikkonen was the Ferrari drivers' nearest challenger, but the McLaren star was a whopping 1.4s down on Schumacher. Juan Pablo Montoya put in his most competitive showing of the weekend to take fourth, a tenth off the Finn.

Felipe Massa continued his fast and spectacular form around the twists of the Hungaroring and the Brazilian was just a few hundredths behind the Williams in fifth. Olivier Panis only improved by eight thousandths on his earlier time and slipped back from third to sixth.

Two drivers who made big improvements were Minardi's Mark Webber and Anthony Davidson. Both took over a second off their previous best to move comfortably within the 107 percent limit, although they were still some way off the pace of Eddie Irvine, who was the nearest target in 18th.

Compared to the previous three sessions there was slightly less off-track action. Takuma Sato got all crossed up on his way into Turn 1 and had to take to the gravel. Allan McNish lost the rear of his Toyota under braking at Turn 11 had spun through a full 360 degrees but was able to extracting himself from the gravel and went on to record the 14th best time. Later on Montoya went straight on over the gravel at the same corner.

Giancarlo Fisichella continues to look a good bet for a top 10 starting slot and was seventh quickest just ahead of Ralf Schumacher. Nick Heidfeld was four tenths slower than team-mate Massa in ninth, while Jarno Trulli rounded out the top 10.