Hungaroring Formula V8 3.5: Tom Dillmann takes race one pole

The AVF racer's lap of 1m26.729s was 0.642s faster than Arden's Aurelien Panis, who denied Dillmann victory at Aragon a week ago.

The newly resurfaced Hungaroring has led to an increase in speeds; Dillmann's pole time being 1.3s quicker than Alex Lynn's 2015 GP2 pole time.

"I did the pole here in GP2 [in 2013], and the year after I was on the front row, so I think I was always quite fast here and liked it," said Dillmann.

"It is really tricky here, because we don't have just Michelin rubber down.

"There is a lot of different [types of] rubber on the track compared to a World Series by Renault event.

"Every lap we do the track feels quite different. It changes so much from the beginning to an end of a session - it's almost like a drying track."

Dillmann is also cautiously optimistic that he will not suffer a repeat of the poor starts that blighted his efforts in round one at Aragon a week ago.

"I had a good practice start on Friday, but it was the same in Motorland; once I got to the grid the bite points moved massively," he said.

"We have changed everything on the clutch, so I hope we have solved it."

Aragon race one winner Louis Deletraz, who jointly leads the drivers' championship with Panis, again finished leading rookie for Fortec in third.

Friday pacesetter Johnny Cecotto Jr took fourth for series newcomer RP Motorport.

In a repeat of qualifying at Aragon, Matthieu Vaxiviere again led the way at the mid-way point of the half-hour session, only to slide back in position on his final new tyre run.

The SMP Racing driver finished the morning in fifth ahead of Dillmann's AVF team-mate, Force India Formula 1 Friday practice driver Alfonso Celis Jr.

Matevos Isaakyan held a place in the top-three entering the final minute of action, before being demoted to seventh, ahead of Charouz-run Lotus racer Roy Nissany, whose formative motorsport years were spent in Hungary.

QUALIFYING RESULT