The McLaren ace recorded the fastest time of 1:21.686 in the day's first practice session to head home the resilient Ferrari of Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher came close to toppling his Finnish rival but his final time of 1:21.842 was an agonising tenth short.

Coming home third was the second McLaren of Juan Pablo Montoya who also mounted a challenge for P1.

Montoya had bettered his teammate’s time on two earlier occasions only to be beaten by three tenths at the end.

Toyota's promising weekend continued with Ralf Schumacher recording the fourth fastest time.

In fifth place was Fernando Alonso, the result not so pleasing for the Spaniard's Renault squad who had hoped to fight for victory at the Hungaroring.

Like on Friday, the team struggled to find a competitive setup for the R24 and Alonso, along with his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, couldn’t even get within a second of the benchmark time.