Hungaroring GP2: Vandoorne tops practice as Cecotto and Palmer collide
McLaren protege Stoffel Vandoorne was fastest in practice for round seven of the GP2 Series at the Hungaroring, in a session that was overshadowed by an incident between series leader Jolyon Palmer and Johnny Cecotto Jr
With the track temperature soaring to way over 50 degress Celsius, the best times were set relatively early.
ART's Vandoorne recorded his 1m29.479s on his third flying lap on the medium-compound tyre, which beat the Carlin machine of Felipe Nasr's 1m29.540s by 0.061s and would have put him 19th fastest in the earlier Formula 1 practice session.
But the big news was the collision between championship frontrunners Palmer and Cecotto.
Palmer was on an out-lap and keeping well out of the way at Turn 2 as Cecotto appeared to totally miss his braking point and slammed into the left-side of Palmer's car, flying into the air over Palmer's left-front wheel and damaging both of their cars.
After frantic repairs, Palmer rejoined the session for some exploratory laps, having earlier set the fourth-fastest time. His DAMS team-mate Stephane Richelmi was third quickest.
Silverstone and Hockenheim race winner Mitch Evans was fifth, ahead of Cecotto, who will need a good excuse to avoid a grid penalty on Saturday.
Kimiya Sato was seventh fastest on his return to Campos Racing, although his seat will be under threat from Alexander Rossi at the next round at Spa. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was eighth quickest.
Recent pacesetting Racing Engineering duo Stefano Coletti and Raffaele Marciello struggled in the session, finishing it 19th and 20th respectively.
Elsewhere, Conor Daly stopped his Venezuela GP Lazarus car at Turn 8 with a mechanical issue.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Stoffel Vandoorne ART 1m29.479s 2. Felipe Nasr Carlin 1m29.540s +0.061s 3. Stephane Richelmi DAMS 1m29.838s +0.359s 4. Jolyon Palmer DAMS 1m29.877s +0.398s 5. Mitch Evans Russian Time 1m29.950s +0.471s 6. Johnny Cecotto Jr Trident 1m29.989s +0.510s 7. Kimiya Sato Campos 1m30.039s +0.560s 8. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 1m30.046s +0.567s 9. Simon Trummer Rapax 1m30.098s +0.619s 10. Daniel de Jong MP 1m30.164s +0.685s 11. Arthur Pic Campos 1m30.244s +0.765s 12. Sergio Canamasas Trident 1m30.254s +0.775s 13. Tom Dillmann Caterham 1m30.282s +0.803s 14. Andrew Negrao Arden 1m30.404s +0.925s 15. Marco Sorensen MP 1m30.415s +0.936s 16. Rio Haryanto Caterham 1m30.438s +0.959s 17. Conor Daly Lazarus 1m30.453s +0.974s 18. Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 1m30.507s +1.028s 19. Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering 1m30.512s +1.033s 20. Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering 1m30.691s +1.212s 21. Daniel Abt Hilmer 1m30.718s +1.239s 22. Julian Leal Carlin 1m30.807s +1.328s 23. Rene Binder Arden 1m31.005s +1.526s 24. Jon Lancaster Hilmer 1m31.178s +1.699s 25. Takuya Izawa ART 1m31.182s +1.703s 26. Artem Markelov Russian Time 1m31.195s +1.716s
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