Ralf surprised by unusual temperatures

While the Hungarian weekend is always one of the hottest of the calendar, overnight rains and a cloudy sky surprised the teams today, leaving a lot of them struggling with their tyre choices.

"It's unusual to see the Hungaroring in cool conditions like this so it was a difficult day for all of us because we were prepared for different temperatures," said Schumacher, sixth quickest today.

"Tyre graining is always a problem in low temperatures like we had today but as rubber goes down over the rest of the weekend that should improve.

"We managed to go through all the work we needed today but it will be a long night to discuss what type of tyre we will pick for the next two days. At the last three races we've shown strong pace even if we haven't always converted that into results. Now we must look to score well before we head to the August break."

Teammate Jarno Trulli echoed Schumacher's comments after finishing the session in seventh position.

"This is the first time I can remember seeing clouds in Hungary so it will be a very different weekend from usual here," Trulli added. "Obviously when you choose tyres in advance you cannot predict the weather and you have to go with what you have seen during the last few years.

"That means the weather is an important variable this weekend, but at least we expect it to stay dry. Today there was low general grip and a lot of tyre degradation but it was difficult to draw too many conclusions.

"Still, I am hopeful because the combination of our chassis and our Bridgestone tyres has been working well in recent races."