Ferrari confident after Friday's domination

“We looked quite strong today,” said Schumacher. “However, we have seen situations like this before, when we have been dominant on Friday but failed to get pole on Saturday. So, I want to wait until tomorrow and see what happens, but we definitely have a good package here, especially as the Bridgestone tyres seem to be very strong here, just as they were last year in Hungary. It feels good to be driving again after our short break and I am enjoying it, especially after a trouble free day like this one.”

Rubens Barrichello has quite an eventful day as he struggled at times to keep his chassis on the road. The Brazilian driver has to settle for second place in both sessions behind Schumacher and he was not too pleased with the handling of his F2002 in the afternoon session. But with two more sessions before qualifying Rubens is confident he can get the best from the car and challenge for the pole position.

“The day went well. As expected, the track is dirty after the rain that fell in recent days,” commented Barrichello. “The car set-up was good this morning, but I was less happy with it in the afternoon. All in all, I am happy with the work we have done and I think I can fight for a place on the front two rows tomorrow. It is very important to have a good grid position here as overtaking is just about impossible.”

Sporting Director Jean Todt was happy with the day’s work and is feeling confident that the constructor’s title can be secured this weekend which is the highest priority for the team. Also on the list of wishes for Ferrari is to get Barrichello ahead of the Williams duo and into second place in the drivers title. Todt was also full of praise for the tyres Bridgestone have brought to Hungary and is hopeful that they will give them the best chance in qualifying and the race on Sunday.

“After a break of about 15 days, it is a good feeling to be on track again, especially in what has been such a positive season for us,” Remarked Todt. “We came to Budapest having already taken the Drivers’ title with Michael Schumacher two races ago and now we have two more objectives: winning the Constructors’ Championship and taking second place in the Drivers’ classification with Rubens Barrichello. We are close to our first objective, given we have a considerable lead, which means we could wrap it up here in Budapest. As for Rubens, he has to make up a five point gap. Today, we worked on car set-up and on a comparison programme between the two types of tyre available. As far as the latter is concerned, it seems that Bridgestone has done a very good job, which will put us in a strong position for both qualifying and the race. Tomorrow, we will be aiming to get both our cars on the front two rows. We know how important the grid position is on this, the second slowest track on the calendar, after Monaco, given that overtaking is very difficult.”

Ross Brawn was probably the less pleased with today’s session. Brawn felt that the session was messy and that neither driver got the best out of their cars today. The dust and gravel that dominated the second session was another headache for Brawn and the team as it hampered their tyre assessment programme, but he too remains confident that it will all be right when it matters.

“It was a messy session as the track was dirty and every time our drivers went out, it seemed as though they were driving a different car,” said Ross. “It was difficult to make changes to the car as the track conditions changed a great deal and also because of cars going off the track. This also made it difficult to run our tyre assessment programme. But we know we have a competitive package for the weekend.”