Round 13 – the Hungarian Grand Prix – opened at the Hungaroring in the outskirts of Budapest on 4 August.

At 11am and with the ambient temperature sitting at 17 degrees C and 20 degrees, the first practice session got underway. As the track surface was not completely dry following the previous night’s rain, Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers, Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher limited their runs to nine and five laps, respectively.

The second practice session also started under quite chilly conditions – an ambient temperature of 19 and track temperature of 24 degrees C. Ralf Schumacher completed 19 laps with a best time of 1’23”747 for sixth position. Trulli also clocked up 18 laps, finishing right behind Ralf in seventh with his time of 1’23”771.

The fastest driver for practice on the first day was Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) with his time of 1’21”647. In a turn of events, Fernando Alonso (Renault) was judged to have driven dangerously and incurred a two-second penalty for all qualifying sessions.

Rain fell again at Hungaroring on Friday night making conditions slippery for day two’s first practice session and teams took a variety of approaches to making their tyre selection for the afternoon’s qualifying.

Fernando Alonso (Renault) had been handed down a penalty on the previous day from the stewards in the form of two seconds being added to his best time in each qualifying period as a result of what they saw as dangerous driving. But he was then joined by Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), who received the same penalty after passing another machine while the red flag was out during the first practice session today.

It was under this unusual mood that qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix got underway. The two Panasonic Toyota drivers put in solid runs that saw them both continue through to the third period, where they also performed well – Ralf Schumacher finishing in seventh and Jarno Trulli not far behind in ninth. With one driver above them accepting a penalty for an engine change, they will line up in sixth and eighth on the grid tomorrow.

Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) clinched his second pole position for this season (11th of his career) with a time of 1’19”599.

Conditions deteriorated for the third day of the Hungarian Grand Prix, with rain continuing for fall from morning.

Despite the showers easing up before the start, the track surface was completely wet resulting in all teams starting on wet tyres. Temperatures were also cool (air: 18 degrees C; track: 21 degrees C) as the race got underway at 2pm.

Although Panasonic Toyota Racing started from sixth and eighth on the grid, both positions were on the inside where conditions were even more slippery, making it difficult to accelerate well and causing both drivers to drop back dramatically in position by the first corner.

With both machines starting on a fairly full load of fuel, it was not until the 23rd (Trulli) and 24th (R. Schumacher) laps that the drivers pitted for the first time. However, just after this in the 26th lap, Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) collided with Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso) who was running one lap behind him, causing the safety car to be deployed. This forced the two drivers to wait it out behind the safety car and watch in frustration as the gap between them and the leaders increased even further.

As the race headed into the second half, the bedlam continued despite the rain having let up. In the 51st lap, Fernando Alonso (Renault), who had been running it alone up in front, spun off into the barriers and out of the race. Then Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) hit another machine, damaging his steering rod in the process which put him out of the race. Amongst the confusion and with just four laps to go, Trulli was forced to retire after smoke started to billow from his engine.

This saw Ralf Schumacher left as the sole runner for Panasonic Toyota Racing. Ralf finished the race one lap off the pace of the winner, but still collected a invaluable three Constructors Championship points for the team.

Victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix went to Jenson Button (Honda), who had started from 14th, giving him his first win since his Formula One debut 114 races ago.