Trulli’s performance was especially good because the team had to change an engine for Hungary after Jarno suffered a problem caused by lack of pneumatic pressure in the closing stages of the previous race at Hockenheim. It meant that he ran relatively early in today’s qualifying session, when track conditions were not at their best.

“On top of that, I had a fuel system problem in free practice this morning,” Trulli explained, “which meant that I missed quite a lot of the session and didn’t have a chance to assess the potential on new tyres. I was therefore guessing a bit and I think I guessed pretty well! I didn’t expect to be able to qualify as high as third in the circumstances but by the end of the lap I was very confident in the car, which is how I managed to set a very fast third sector time. The car has had good performance so far this weekend and we will just have to see what our race pace is like. I am hopeful that I can challenge for good points.”

Schumacher, meanwhile, said: “Overall I’m happy with fifth, but I got a little bit sideways out of the chicane, which cost me a bit of time and generally I had more oversteer than I was anticipating. It’s a long, hard, physical race here in Hungary and I will be doing my best to continue scoring points, which I have managed in the last four races that we have started.”

Michael Schumacher took his first pole position of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro with a lap in 1m19.882s, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya’s West McLaren Mercedes (1m20.774s). Sandwiched between the two TF105s, fourth fastest, was Kimi Raikkonen (1m20.891s), who suffered the penalty of being first out onto the circuit today after his retirement at Hockenheim. Championship leader Fernando Alonso’s Mild Seven Renault completed the top six qualifiers.

Chief race engineer Dieter Gass said: “We have looked strong all weekend and both drivers did a good job. Jarno’s lap was a fine effort considering he was out early in the session, although we saw from Kimi Raikkonen’s time that perhaps the circuit conditions were not as big a handicap as we had expected. Overall, we are delighted with the outcome of qualifying, with both TF105s in the top five, and looking forward to a strong race.”