Coletti on top in second Hungary test

The Monegasque went top with seven minutes of the hour and 15 minute session remaining, demoting Magny-Cours winner Nathanael Berthon. Draco's Frenchman ended the afternoon 0.248 seconds off Coletti's effort of 1m34.377s.

Both drivers set their times using high-downforce settings. Tomorrow afternoon's 45 minute race will be held with a compulsory low-aero configuration (LAC). Despite today's success, Comtec driver Coletti - sixth in points and chasing his first win of the season - is not taking anything for granted.

"It is good, but we should have done better," said Coletti. "I had a yellow flag on my first flying lap, and then made some mistakes on my second one. With it being so hot here you should be setting your fastest time on your first lap, because the tyres lose performance very quickly.

"I spent the whole of the session on low-downforce and then fitted high at the end for new tyres. I have no idea what the difference in lap time is between the high and LAC, but for me it was around 0.3s."

British Formula 3 champion Daniel Ricciardo (Tech 1), who celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday, finished third and led the LAC runners.

Both Esteban Guerrieri in fourth and Coletti's Comtec team-mate Greg Mansell, fifth, had spells at the top. Argentinean three-time winner Guerrieri was quickest for ISR a third of the way into the session, while at the halfway mark Mansell was on top; a new tub since the previous round at Magny-Cours paying dividends.

The session was relatively incident free. Epsilon Euskadi's Keisuke Kunimoto briefly brought out the red flags after just 10 minutes, but was soon able to get going. Yellows flags were required when Renault Formula 1 reserve driver Jan Charouz pirouetted at Turn 13, and championship leader Mikhail Aleshin had a moment at Turn 1.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m34.377s
 2.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m34.625s  + 0.248s
 3.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m34.677s  + 0.300s
 4.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              1m34.709s  + 0.332s
 5.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m34.886s  + 0.509s
 6.  Brendon Hartley    Tech 1           1m35.029s  + 0.652s
 7.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m35.080s  + 0.703s
 8.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m35.161s  + 0.784s
 9.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  1m35.350s  + 0.973s
10.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m35.441s  + 1.064s
11.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m35.569s  + 1.192s
12.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     1m35.592s  + 1.215s
13.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m35.633s  + 1.256s
14.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           1m35.689s  + 1.312s
15.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m35.728s  + 1.351s
16.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m35.824s  + 1.447s
17.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m35.877s  + 1.500s
18.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m36.028s  + 1.651s
19.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m36.038s  + 1.661s
20.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m36.105s  + 1.728s
21.  Jan Charouz        P1               1m36.266s  + 1.889s
22.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus     1m36.379s  + 2.002s
23.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  1m36.681s  + 2.304s
24.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  1m36.695s  + 2.318s