For Michelin the Hungarian Grand Prix would see BMW WilliamsF1 driver Ralf Schumacher been the best driver on the day. He held third from the start and now shares third place in the overall standings with team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya, who slipped back to finish eleventh after an incident-packed race.

Juan-Pablo lost several places on the opening lap and was running seventh when he careered of the circuit on lap 21 and damaged his front wing. This caused him to run off again next time around and he then had to pit earlier than scheduled to have his car repaired.

"We didn't expect to be third here. We can be satisfied as we were the only team to keep a reasonable distance behind the Ferraris. Also our tyre seemed to get better and better throughout the race which helped." said Ralf.

Michelin-shod McLaren-Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard came home fourth and fifth.

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, responded to various questions.

What did you make of today's race?

"There's not a great deal to say, really. We have seen many weekends of this kind this year and the only real new development was the increased pace of the Jordan-Hondas, which look as though they might be more of a threat in future races. From Michelin's standpoint Ralf Schumacher drove a very solid race for Williams-BMW. He made a cracking start and came close to passing his brother at the first turn. It wasn't to be, but he paced himself beautifully and our tyres lasted very well. People have been asking me why the McLaren's struggled in qualifying but were very competitive in the race. We need to analyse the reasons for that. If they had started at the front, today's result might have been very different."

With the benefit of hindsight, were you too conservative with your tyre compounds this weekend?

"We could have been more aggressive, but I think we would only have gained a couple of tenths per lap, certainly not half a second. And I don't think that would have been enough to affect the overall outcome of the race."

Sometimes we see Williams running strongly throughout a weekend, at other times McLaren does likewise. We have yet to see both of them being consistently competitive at the same time. How can you solve that?

"With a lot of hard work, but I think we are working in the right direction."

Have you thought much about the forthcoming race in Spa?

"Not yet. We need to catch our breath after this weekend and reflect on the lessons we have learned in Hungary."

A number of racing incidents eliminated several of your cars, but you don't seem too disappointed by today's result?

"I'm not. As I said, we could have been a little bit faster, but perhaps not sufficiently so to have challenged for victory. In addition, if you look at how we performed at this track last year and compare it to today's result, you will see that we have made a great deal of progress this weekend."