Giorgio Pantano (right) led the way in free practice at the Hungaroring, taking the top spot two tenths ahead of his nearest rivals Kazuki Nakajima and Pastor Maldonado.

The Italian's best time of 1:28.992 was set in a frantic first ten minutes, with the top spot changing hands constantly between a number of drivers until Pantano made it his own.

The session started in sweltering conditions, with the pace on track soon reaching boiling point: Borja Garcia, Maldonado, Roldan Rodriguez, Timo Glock and Andi Zuber all sat at the top of the timesheets before Pantano took over for the remainder of the session.

A number of drivers were caught out by the traditionally dusty circuit: any slight deviation was rewarded by a run wide through the next corner or worse, with Maldonado and Bruno Senna making notable spins at turn five, and turns four and eleven also being popular off track destinations.

With six minutes remaining in the session Adam Carroll added his name to the list of spinners when he clipped the inside kerb at the chicane and was pitched off track: he managed to get into gear but the ground off track was too dry and his car was stuck, bringing out the red flags while the marshals took an extraordinarily long time to remove his stricken vehicle.

The session reopened with just one minute remaining, leaving no chance of getting another lap in: the top three finished just ahead of Luca Filippi, Timo Glock and Andi Zuber. The first twelve drivers were within a second of the top spot, and 22 drivers were within 2 seconds: with the temperatures still soaring, the pace in qualifying promises to be scorching.

Provided by the GP2 Series Media Service