Grosjean grabs first pole in Hungary

Grosjean lapped his ART Grand Prix car in 1:27.762, which was 0.082 seconds quicker than Zuber's Piquet Sports car, and Zuber was just 0.002 seconds faster than di Grassi's Campos-run machine.

The Frenchman timed his run perfectly, setting the time with less than 60 seconds on the clock. He had a scare early on as he encountered a slow BCN car on the exit of the flat-out Turn 3, and had to pass it on the grass.

Vitaly Petrov (Campos) left it even later and set his time after the clock had zeroed, so the Russian will start fourth.

Karun Chandhok (iSport), who had spent much of the session second, fell to fifth in the closing moments. He was powerless to respond to the late improvements as he spun off overtaking the touring Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS) and stalled.

Mike Conway will start sixth for Trident Racing, ahead of championship protagonists Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) and Bruno Senna (iSport) - the latter almost half a second off the leading pace just when he needs to eat into Pantano's convincing points lead.

Senna had been P2 at the halfway point, but didn't improve his time enough to stay with the leaders.

Pastor Maldonado's Piquet Sports car was unable to be repaired in time for qualifying after his free practice shunt, so he will start Saturday's race from the back of the grid.

Pos  Driver             Team                   Time         Gap
 1.  Romain Grosjean    ART                    1:27.782
 2.  Andi Zuber         Piquet Sports          1:27.864  +0.082
 3.  Lucas di Grassi    Campos                 1:27.866  +0.084
 4.  Vitaly Petrov      Campos                 1:28.035  +0.253
 5.  Karun Chandhok     iSport                 1:28.062  +0.280
 6.  Mike Conway        Trident                1:28.123  +0.341
 7.  Giorgio Pantano    Racing Engineering     1:28.203  +0.421
 8.  Bruno Senna        iSport                 1:28.237  +0.455
 9.  Jerome d'Ambrosio  DAMS                   1:28.413  +0.631
10.  Kamui Kobayashi    DAMS                   1:28.513  +0.731
11.  Sebastien Buemi    Arden                  1:28.562  +0.780
12.  Sakon Yamamoto     ART                    1:28.730  +0.948
13.  Andy Soucek        Super Nova             1:28.750  +0.968
14.  Diego Nunes        DPR                    1:28.756  +0.974
15.  Alvaro Parente     Super Nova             1:28.921  +1.139
16.  Davide Valsecchi   Durango                1:28.926  +1.144
17.  Ho-Pin Tung        Trident                1:29.010  +1.228
18.  Javier Villa       Racing Engineering     1:29.094  +1.312
19.  Adrian Valles      BCN                    1:29.188  +1.406
20.  Roldan Rodriguez   FMS                    1:29.458  +1.676
21.  Luca Filippi       Arden                  1:29.876  +2.094
22.  Michael Herck      DPR                    1:30.021  +2.239
23.  Carlos Iaconelli   BCN                    1:30.220  +2.438
24.  Marko Asmer        FMS                    1:30.258  +2.476
25.  Alberto Valerio    Durango                no time
26.  Pastor Maldonado   Piquet Sports          no time