GP2 news

Di Grassi ahead in Hungaroring practice

Lucas di Grassi and the Racing Engineering team set the pace in practice ahead of this weekend's rounds of the championship in Budapest. The Brazilian, who is fifth in the Drivers' standings, completed the quickest lap time on Friday morning, leading on the timesheets from Vitaly Petrov and Javier Villa.

In the heat of Budapest with the track temperature rising to 41°C (106°C), Super Nova Spaniard Villa was the fastest man in the early laps of the session but he was soon to be denied the top spot when di Grassi set the pace just before the ten minute mark. His lap time was never bettered although Pastor Maldonado seemed to be on his way to a quicker effort. However, as the Venezuelan set the fastest Sectors 1 and 2 times, he lost the rear of his car in Turn 13, prompting a yellow flag.

When the track was clear and with twenty minutes left on the clock, all drivers set their goal to claim the top spot, starting with Petrov, but the Russian's attempts could not bring him closer than four tenths to the Brazilian.

The last ten minutes of the session were marked by multiple yellow flags - a streak started with Karun Chandhok: the Indian spun and went off track at Turn 12. That was soon followed by team-mate Alvaro Parente in the first sector. The two Ocean Racing drivers were not the only unlucky ones: as the clock ran out both Luiz Razia and Petrov went off track and stopped at Turns 13 and 8 respectively, with the Russian damaging the nose of his car as he crashed into the barrier.

Villa could never improve his first quickest lap and eventually finished third ahead of Romain Grosjean, Parente, Maldonado, Davide Valsecchi, Luca Filippi and Edoardo Mortara. Series leader Nico Hülkenberg completed the Top 10. With the temperatures expected to be high this afternoon, the fight for pole position will most certainly be hot.

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