Van der Garde on top in free practice

Giedo van der Garde has come out on top in this morning’s free practice session at the Hungaroring, pipping teammate Sergio Perez, Sam Bird and Jerome d’Ambrosio for the top spot by just one tenth of a second.

The Dutchman’s best lap of 1:28.188 was set midway through the session, crossing the line just behind his teammate to steal the top spot Perez briefly held by just 0.053 as the Addax team showed their hand ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session.

The session opened to overcast conditions and dropping temperatures, but the promised rain held off to give the teams a clean session to get through their programmes: with the drivers running within themselves to avoid handing their mechanics any last minute dramas, the field gradually slicing away at the timesheets as the clock ticked away.

Series leader Pastor Maldonado was the first driver to run a sub 1.29 time before appearing to pull back, with d’Ambrosio and Bird overtaking at the top ahead of the Addax pair annexing the top of the timesheets before their stops for tyres: with temperatures dropping there were no substantial improvements through the field in the second half. Behind the top four were Davide Valsecchi, Michael Herck, Maldonado, Christian Vietoris, Marcus Ericsson and Jules Bianchi, while the top 14 drivers were all within a second of the top time.

With more performance available throughout the grid, and the promise of rain to come, this afternoon’s qualifying session should be enthralling.