Friday First Free Practice

World Champion Michael Schumacher started his Hungarian Grand Prix weekend in style on Friday morning when he blitzed the field to set the fastest time in opening practice at the Hungaroring.

After a brief early morning rain shower most of the field left it late to hit the track but German Schumacher was immediately on the pace when he finally left the pits to set a time of 1:21.552.

Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello finished second best, 0.386 seconds behind, with BAR-Honda's British test driver Anthony Davidson the best of the rest in third.

McLaren had a strong session with Finn Kimi Raikkonen fourth and Scot David Coulthard fifth while Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya finished sixth in the revised Williams-BMW, which has a new nose for this weekend.

Frenchman Olivier Panis was seventh for Toyota as they continued to improve the new car they introduced at the last race in Germany and Australian test driver Ryan Briscoe backed up Panis' effort by finishing eighth.

Italian Jarno Trulli finished ninth for Renault, who need to score 10 more points than Ferrari to keep the constructors' championship alive, and Briton Jenson Button completed the top ten.

Australian Mark Webber suffered a difficult session in his Jaguar and failed to set a time after four part-laps during the hour.

Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner's home race got off to a bad start when, after failing to set a time, his Minardi slowed as he headed into the final turn after 20 minutes of the session and had to be pushed back into the garage.

Italian Sauber driver Giancarlo Fisichella led the times ahead of teammate Felipe Massa at the halfway mark but both struggled to stay on track at turn nine and took trips across the grass.

Davidson moved to the top of the times but both Ferraris stayed in the pits until 25 minutes before the end of the session and when Schumacher finally headed out he went 2.442 seconds faster.

Barrichello soon followed Schumacher onto the track but he could not even manage to get within a second of the German's stunning opening effort, which was faster than last year's pole position.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya spun at turn 13 and slid backwards towards the tyre barriers but stopped just short and continued to return to the pits after 43 minutes of the session.

All the drivers were fortunate to avoid a hare which ran onto the track towards the end of the session as Barrichello went faster but not fast enough to better Schumacher's time.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:21.552 10 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:21.938 + 0.386 11 3. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:21.951 + 0.399 24 4. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:23.024 + 1.472 5 5. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:23.100 + 1.548 8 6. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:23.753 + 2.201 8 7. Panis Toyota (M) 1:23.827 + 2.275 8 8. Briscoe Toyota (M) 1:24.108 + 2.556 20 9. Trulli Renault (M) 1:24.124 + 2.572 13 10. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:24.140 + 2.588 14 11. Alonso Renault (M) 1:24.191 + 2.639 13 12. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:24.198 + 2.646 13 13. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:24.236 + 2.684 14 14. Wirdheim Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:24.265 + 2.713 23 15. Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1:24.353 + 2.801 15 16. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 1:24.381 + 2.829 13 17. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:24.462 + 2.910 13 18. Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 1:24.843 + 3.291 22 19. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:25.071 + 3.519 13 20. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:25.218 + 3.666 17 21. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:25.834 + 4.282 10 22. Leinders Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:26.074 + 4.522 18 23. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:28.296 + 6.744 11 24. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:28.893 + 7.341 12 25. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) No Time 4 All timing unofficial