Schumacher fastest in practice 3 - Hungary

The 37-year-old German outpaced nearest rival and Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa by six tenths of a second as he became the first driver this weekend to break the 1:21 barrier at the Hungaroring.

Schumacher clocked a best time of 1:20.795, Massa recorded 1:21.472 and fifth-placed defending champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso in his Renault clocked only 1:22.119.

Given that Alonso will be hit by a two seconds penalty for his antics in Friday's practice session, this was a performance that endorsed the feeling that everything is now going Ferrari's way.

Robert Kubica, the first Pole to take part in a Grand Prix, was third fastest for BMW-Sauber ahead of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, in a Honda. Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth in the second Renault.

The session, run in cool and overcast conditions again, featured a spectacular fire, which brought Jenson Button to a halt after 24 minutes as the rear of his Honda car burst into flames following what appeared to be a serious engine failure.

This caused the session to be red-flagged to a halt and a ten minutes' delay while the track was cleared of debris, oil and other detritus. It also meant that the session was cut from the usual 60 minutes to 50 minutes.

Prior to Button's blow-up, Renault's defending world champion Alonso had topped the times, but his brief moment in the limelight was just that and it was not long before the Ferraris began to dominate.

There were other incidents with several drivers running off-track and back on again as the dismal conditions failed to improve, the temperature actually falling slightly during the session.

By the end, the air temperature was 21 degrees Celsius, the track was 29 and the relative humidity level was 60 per cent.

The off-circuit men included Christijan Albers of the Netherlands in his Midland and Poland's debutant Robert Kubica in a BMW Sauber before Nico Rosberg, in his Williams, joined the list.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:20.795           11
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:21.472 + 0.677   11
 3.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:21.806 + 1.011   18
 4.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:21.833 + 1.038   18
 5.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:22.119 + 1.324   25
 6.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:22.340 + 1.545   13
 7.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:22.362 + 1.567   15
 8.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:22.424 + 1.629   14
 9.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:22.560 + 1.765   13
10.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:22.599 + 1.804   8 
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:22.643 + 1.848   14
12.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:22.839 + 2.044   17
13.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:23.819 + 3.024   12
14.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:23.858 + 3.063   16
15.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:23.963 + 3.168   13
16.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:24.381 + 3.586   15
17.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:24.731 + 3.936   4 
18.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:24.847 + 4.052   15
19.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:25.373 + 4.578   16
20.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:25.597 + 4.802   14
21.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:26.047 + 5.252   12
22.  Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:26.260 + 5.465   19

All timing unofficial