Schumacher praises Bridgestone for pole effort.

Michael Schumacher has admitted that a large part of the pole position he secured in Hungary on Saturday belongs to tyre supplier Bridgestone.

The Japanese company confessed to having gone the wrong way on its selection for the last event, in Germany a week ago, and brought all-new compounds to the Hungaroring for this weekend's Hungarian round. Schumacher and Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello managed to stay in the top ten throughout the free practice sessions, prompting technical director Ross Brawn to predict a more competitive weekend, which the world champion underlined with a 64th career pole.

"We obviously feel very delighted after a suffering period where not very much seemed to work in our favour," the German commented, "All weekend long, we have been very competitive and this is the result. A big complement to Bridgestone, they have had to suffer a lot this year and this shows the effort they have been putting in.

"It is a little bit of a surprise [to be on pole], just as it has been a big surprise to be as slow as we have been recently. We have obviously changed the tyres substantially and it seems to have paid off. We might have to find out if it is just a combination of many things, where this circuit suits the car and the tyres and everything, or if [the improvement] is a general trend, but I am pretty confident."

Although considering himself to be among the candidates for a front row start, Schumacher admitted that he had not necessarily expected to be on pole - and certainly not by almost a second over his nearest rival.

"I was surprised by the gap in the end - I wasn't expecting it to be this big," he confirmed, "I am not surprised that we were able to fight for pole position but I expected it to be a bit tighter. Obviously, one [driver] was out of the game, because Kimi had to go early, but [from] Rubens' results [on Friday], we saw that, not only did we have good single lap potential, but we also had good consistency.

"This morning, we made a good improvement in the handling, and I am pretty happy - happier than at Indianapolis. To be on pole is one thing, to do it with such a time margin to the others is another. But, on the other side, it's just qualifying - the race is still to be done."

Asked if he expected to have problems with his tyres in the race, particularly given the excessive heat being endured in Budapest, Schumacher admitted that the team would be keeping an eye on the situation, but did not expect the same problems as he had in Germany.

"We want to finish the race competitively," he insisted, "It didn't work out at Hockenheim, but I think neither of the solutions we had available there worked out - neither Rubens nor I were particularly great at any stage. But it is different this weekend, very different...."