Charles Leclerc has continued in Budapest where he left off in Silverstone by topping this morning's FIA Formula 2 Championship free practice session at the Hungaroring, setting the pace early on before concentrating on race simulations to take the top spot ahead of Oliver Rowland and Nyck De Vries.

The Monegasque driver stopped the clocks at 1:27.516 about a third of the way into the hot and sunny session, overturning his own previous best laps to annex the top of the timesheets for the remainder of the session, with his rivals able to get within a tenth but no closer as they fine-tuned their set ups for this afternoon and beyond.

Louis Deletraz set the first quickest lap but was soon deposed by the Ferrari Academy driver, who then went faster each time round for 3 laps as he improved his times at a slightly faster rate than his rivals: they maintained a gap throughout the hot lap fight on their first sets, but just couldn't knock Leclerc off his perch.

After emerging on fresh rubber all of the grid continued their work until De Vries pushed a little too hard, juddering over the new kerb at turn 11 before finding the wall to prompt a brief VSC period to remove his stricken vehicle: it was the only incident of note in a quiet session ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session.

Behind the top 3 Norman Nato, Nicholas Latifi, Alexander Albon, Sergio Canamasas and Nobuharu Matsushita were well within a second of pole, which covered the top 15 drivers and promises to bring the heat in the battle for pole position.

Preliminary Free Practice Classification

1. Charles Leclerc PREMA Racing 1:27.516
2. Oliver Rowland DAMS 1:27.586
3. Nyck De Vries Rapax 1:27.674
4. Norman Nato Pertamina Arden 1:27.746
5. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:27.876
6. Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 1:27.954
7. Sergio Canamasas Rapax 1:27.978
8. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:28.036
9. Jordan King MP Motorsport 1:28.122
10. Antonio Fuoco PREMA Racing 1:28.140
11. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.259
12. Luca Ghiotto RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.260
13. Robert Visoiu Campos Racing 1:28.359
14. Gustav Malja Racing Engineering 1:28.407
15. Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1:28.425
16. Sean Gelael Pertamina Arden 1:28.563
17. Louis Delétraz Racing Engineering 1:28.645 19
18. Santino Ferrucci Trident 1:28.685
19. Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport 1:28.886
20. Nabil Jeffri Trident 1:29.129