Friday Second Free Practice - Hungarian GP

McLaren top first day in Hungary

After spending most of the first part of the day in the pits, the two McLaren drivers took to the track on Friday afternoon to take the fastest times of the day, David Coulthard setting the quickest time just over a tenth of a second ahead of Hakkinen. Despite the dirty track conditions, Coulthard's best lap was only half a second off Hakkinen's 1999 pole winning time. Both drivers worked on dialing out slight oversteer problems with their cars, but otherwise had no real problems during the session.

Schumacher unsure about tyre choice

Michael Schumacher declared himself quite happy with the handling of his Ferrari today, the only doubt in his mind being the choice of tyres between the soft and extra soft compounds, which Bridgestone have brought to this race. Although the extra soft tyres might give a quicker qualifying time, the soft tyre could be the better race option if it is hot as expected. Rubens Barrichello was more concerned about the set-up of his car, which he said was not too good, although he had only been working for the best race set-up throughout the session.

Trulli heads Jordan duo

Jarno Trulli set the fifth fastest time for Jordan, he and teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen working on dialing out too much understeer throughout the session. As usual, Frentzen was not trying for quick laps to day and was happy with his ninth position after working on race set-up.

Fisichella looking for grip

Like most of his rivals, Giancarlo Fisichella was quite happy with the balance of his Benetton during the session, but complained of an overall lack of grip from the track. Wurz was also struggling with a lack of grip which was manifesting itself with both understeer into the corners and oversteer under power.

Ralf happy with aerodynamic changes

Ralf Schumacher was happy with the aerodynamic changes made to his car, which had improved the grip and handling. He also said that BMW had done a good job setting up the mapping of his engine. Jenson Button was happy with the improvements he had made to his car during the session. Tomorrow he reckoned he would just need to work on the fine tuning after setting an impressive eighth fastest just behind Ralf.

In brief...

Despite a spin, Eddie Irvine said he had improved the balance of his car throughout the session after ending up in 10th place. Herbert, trying a different set-up on his car complained of rear end instability and could not better 20th time.

Zonta was back in 21st place after spinning off and stalling his BAR-Honda. Villeneuve (14th) also had two spins saying that it would be another struggle to make the top 10 on this high-downforce circuit where his car lacks grip and traction.

Pedro Diniz was one of the few to run a second set of tyres this afternoon and complained that when he did, it completely destroyed the balance he had found. A spin by de la Rosa and a wrong set-up from Verstappen saw the two Arrows well back in 17th and 18th place, also struggling for grip on this high downforce track.

Pos Driver Team Times 1. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 1:18.792 181.617 km/h 2. Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes 1:18.943 + 0.151 3. M.Schumacher Ferrari 1:19.138 + 0.346 4. Barrichello Ferrari 1:19.896 + 1.104 5. Trulli Jordan Mugen-Honda 1:20.104 + 1.312 6. Fisichella Benetton Playlife 1:20.304 + 1.512 7. R.Schumacher Williams BMW 1:20.307 + 1.515 8. Button Williams BMW 1:20.343 + 1.551 9. Frentzen Jordan Mugen-Honda 1:20.443 + 1.651 10. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth 1:20.713 + 1.921 11. Heidfeld Prost Peugeot 1:20.803 + 2.011 12. Salo Sauber Petronas 1:20.872 + 2.080 13. Alesi Prost Peugeot 1:20.878 + 2.086 14. Villeneuve BAR Honda 1:21.243 + 2.451 15. Diniz Sauber Petronas 1:21.323 + 2.531 16. Wurz Benetton Playlife 1:21.381 + 2.589 17. de la Rosa Arrows Supertec 1:21.400 + 2.608 18. Verstappen Arrows Supertec 1:21.803 + 3.011 19. Gene Minardi Fondmetal 1:21.972 + 3.180 20. Herbert Jaguar Cosworth 1:22.015 + 3.223 21. Zonta BAR Honda 1:22.169 + 3.377 22. Mazzacane Minardi Fondmetal 1:24.529 + 5.737 All timing unofficial