It was a great day for Giancarlo Fisichella, as he recorded his and the Jordan team’s best qualifying performance of the season, to line up on the third row in fifth place. However, it was a day of mixed fortunes for the team, given that Takuma Sato’s afternoon was compromised by a gearbox oil leak, which saw the Japanese driver having to switch to the T-car. Taku only got one trouble free run in the bag and had to settle for fourteenth spot. With various minor tweaks applied to the EJ12 and an improved launch control system, Fisichella should at least manage to maintain position in tomorrow’s 77 lap race, on this track where overtaking moves are rarer than hens’ teeth. The Italian driver is quietly optimistic that he might do better than that.
While the River Danube threatens to burst its banks and flood the Hungarian capital of Budapest, a few miles to the east of the city, Ferrari effectively washed away any hopes its rivals might have of beating the Italian squad in Sunday’s race.
Surprisingly, it was Rubens Barichello who dominated the qualifying session, to take his third pole of the season. Having wrapped up his fifth Drivers’ World Championship title two races ago in France, Michael Schumacher did not seem too bothered to end up in second place. “Rubens did a good job and I just could not match it,” shrugged the German.
Although Ralf Schumacher briefly topped the time sheet, both he and Williams team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya had no answer to Ferrari firepower and will share the second row for today’s 77 lap race. Ferrari’s performance owed much to its Bridgestone tyres, which had the edge over its rivals used by Williams and McLaren amongst others.
On the disappointed list are the McLaren duo of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen. After winning in Monaco back in May, the similar challenge of the Hungarian track was reckoned to be the Anglo-German team’s best chance of another victory. Apparently the team is mystified as to why it could do no better than 10th and 11th.
Row three is an all-Italian affair as Renault’s Jarno Trulli lines up sixth alongside Giancarlo. Sauber recovered well after burning the midnight oil to rebuild the cars that both its drivers crashed heavily on Friday. Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld share row four, just ahead of Jenson Button in the second Renault.
Ferrari is now left with two objectives this season; winning the Constructors’ Championship and getting Barrichello up from fourth behind the Williams duo, to second in the Drivers’ classification. If the boys in red finish first and second in whatever order, then both titles will be theirs. This means the most likely scenario is that Barrichello will attempt to romp off into the lead, leaving Schumacher in the unusual role of riding shotgun to hold up the chasing pack.