Saturday Second Free Practice

World Champion Michael Schumacher continued his near faultless display at the Hungaroring on Saturday morning, when he topped the times ahead of Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello in the final session before qualifying for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

The dominant German has now been fastest in the last seven Formula One practice sessions as he continued his dominant display from the last race in Germany, where he topped the times in all but the first practice session, claimed pole, won the race and finished with the fastest lap.

If the trend continues, he is set to equal Briton Jim Clark's record of 11 'hat-tricks' of pole, win and fastest lap, and he showed on Saturday morning that, around the Hungaroring, he has the ability to do just that.

Schumacher fractionally improved on his time from the first Saturday practice session - to a lap of 1:14.308 - and held onto the top spot as Barrichello closed the gap to second to 0.140 seconds.

With temperatures at the track in the outskirts of Budapest rising to 25 degrees by the end of practice, Finn Kimi Raikkonen improved his time to move into third place as the first Michelin-shod runner, with the warming conditions suiting the French rubber.

But the McLaren-Mercedes driver was still a massive 1.438 seconds slower than German Schumacher as the Italian Ferrari team continued their impressive preparation for a race in which they could win the constructors' championship.

All they have to do is maintain their 65-point advantage over closest rival Williams-BMW, whose drivers Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and German Ralf Schumacher ended the final practice in 4th and 8th positions respectively.

Brazilian Felipe Massa was fifth fastest for Sauber, with Frenchman Olivier Panis of BAR Honda sixth and Jordan Honda's Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella seventh.

German Nick Heidfeld finished ninth in the second Sauber, with Italian Jarno Trulli completing the top ten for Renault with a lap of one minute and 16.311 seconds, more than two seconds slower than Schumacher.

Minardi drivers Mark Webber and Anthony Davidson managed to find some more speed after both finishing the second session outside the 107 percent mark they need to beat to qualify on Saturday afternoon.

Webber, who admitted after the first practice that he was concerned over a difficulty to make handling improvements to the car, moved past the one minute 19 seconds barrier with a time of one minute 18.320 seconds, while debutant Davidson finished just more than a tenth behind.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:14.308 192.577 km/h 23 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:14.469 + 0.161 29 3. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:15.746 + 1.438 26 4. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:15.912 + 1.604 26 5. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:15.944 + 1.636 32 6. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:16.140 + 1.832 30 7. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:16.201 + 1.893 27 8. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:16.236 + 1.928 26 9. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:16.300 + 1.992 30 10. Trulli Renault (M) 1:16.311 + 2.003 28 11. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:16.348 + 2.040 28 12. Salo Toyota (M) 1:16.515 + 2.207 25 13. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:16.631 + 2.323 29 14. McNish Toyota (M) 1:16.710 + 2.402 23 15. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:16.710 + 2.402 33 16. Button Renault (M) 1:16.790 + 2.482 24 17. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:16.844 + 2.536 29 18. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:17.478 + 3.170 25 19. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:18.320 + 4.012 24 20. Davidson Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:18.483 + 4.175 35 All Timing Unofficial