Ralf eyes top ten in Hungary qualifying

Both Schumacher and teammate Jarno Trulli enjoyed a promising start to their weekend, the German posting the 11th quickest time in the afternoon, two places behind the Italian.

"We had a decent day and we did some good running," said Schumacher. "We made it through our programme and it went quite well. We had no problems and now I'm looking forward to qualifying where we should aim for the top ten. This circuit has generally been quite good for me and I like racing here.

"It's not a quick track but the rhythm of it is enjoyable and it makes for a good Grand Prix. The last few races we've been in good positions but for many reasons we haven't scored points.

"It's very important for us to convert our pace into results so we will be fighting for any points we can score here."  

Trulli was also satisfied with his day's work, despite having to fight understeer problems.

"Today we made it through our programme smoothly and we did work on both sets of tyres to get an idea about the balance," he said. "The main problem has been understeer and front tyre graining. Obviously there is still a lot of work to do but it is good to be back at this track because I normally like it.

"The weather is still a bit unpredictable and there is a chance that we could see more rain so we'll have to bear that in mind. The fight for the midfield spaces is very hard and minor factors can affect the course of the whole weekend.

"At the last race we were unfortunate not to get a result so this time we will be looking to rectify that."