Alexander Rossi leads first Silverstone Formula Renault 3.5 session

"Usually the longest amount of time that I find myself out of a race car is in the off-season, so this big gap in the season was something new for me and so I am very excited to be back on track," said Rossi. "We came off of Budapest with good momentum and it will be really vital for us to carry this forward to Silverstone in search of our second win of the season."

Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne (Carlin) was 0.139 seconds behind Rossi's benchmark time of 1m47.192s in second.

HRT Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was third quickest for ISR, ahead of an excellent effort from series debutant Nick Yelloly at Pons Racing. The GP3 podium finisher is in the seat occupied by Spaniard Marcos Martinez at the Hungaroring.

Ricciardo's ISR team-mate Nathanael Berthon was fifth. The Frenchman, who won a race at Magny-Cours in his rookie season last year, is looking for an upturn in fortune this weekend to progress from his 20th position in this year's points standings.

On home soil, Comtec's Daniel McKenzie made it two Britons in the top six.

Four points behind Vergne in the title fight, Robert Wickens was 19th this morning in the second Carlin entry.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Alexander Rossi    Fortec           1m47.192s
 2.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Carlin           1m47.331s  + 0.139s
 3.  Daniel Ricciardo   ISR              1m47.499s  + 0.307s
 4.  Nick Yelloly       Pons             1m47.695s  + 0.503s
 5.  Nathanael Berthon  ISR              1m47.708s  + 0.516s
 6.  Daniel McKenzie    Comtec           1m47.787s  + 0.595s
 7.  Albert Costa       EPIC             1m47.908s  + 0.716s
 8.  Fairuz Fauzy       Mofaz            1m47.914s  + 0.722s
 9.  Nelson Panciatici  KMP              1m47.927s  + 0.735s
10.  Daniel Zampieri    BVM Target       1m47.956s  + 0.764s
11.  Oliver Webb        Pons             1m48.155s  + 0.963s
12.  Arthur Pic         Tech 1           1m48.209s  + 1.017s
13.  Brendon Hartley    Gravity-Charouz  1m48.279s  + 1.087s
14.  Andre Negrao       Draco            1m48.295s  + 1.103s
15.  Jake Rosenzweig    Mofaz            1m48.365s  + 1.173s
16.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m48.414s  + 1.222s
17.  Jan Charouz        Gravity-Charouz  1m48.423s  + 1.231s
18.  Sten Pentus        EPIC             1m48.503s  + 1.311s
19.  Robert Wickens     Carlin           1m48.560s  + 1.368s
20.  Cesar Ramos        Fortec           1m48.562s  + 1.370s
21.  Kevin Korjus       Tech 1           1m48.641s  + 1.449s
22.  Daniil Move        P1               1m48.735s  + 1.543s
23.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m48.825s  + 1.633s
24.  Stephane Richelmi  Draco            1m49.205s  + 2.013s
25.  Sergio Canamasas   BVM Target       1m49.249s  + 2.057s
26.  Daniel de Jong     Comtec           1m49.750s  + 2.558s