Rosberg Storms to Pole

Rosberg set a time of 1:31.459 just four minutes into the session, and no one was able to come close, allowing the German to run just four laps in the half hour and handing him the advantage of an extra set of new tyres for tomorrow's race.

With track temperatures reaching fifty degrees at the Budapest track tempers were reaching boiling point in the pitlane, after a number of drivers had off-track excursions.

Mathias Lauda, Sergio Hernandez, and Nelson Piquet all spun in the first half of the session, while Adam Carroll beached himself in the gravel, Ferdinando Monfardini found the wall just next to him, and Piquet spun on his second hot lap but managed to hold his car off the wall in the second half.

Jani's fastest lap came with seven minutes to go, with the Swiss driver giving his all to put his car on the front row for tomorrow's race, a big boost for his Racing Engineering team after a lot of bad luck in recent races.

Three minutes from the end of the session new driver Giorgio Mondini's engine let go on the front straight, forcing the Italo-Swiss driver to coast to a halt and stopping him from moving off the bottom of the timesheets, 4.5 seconds off Rosberg's pace.

The first eleven drivers were split by just two seconds, but with a one second gap between first and second Rosberg will have a clear advantage for race one.

Pos   Driver          Team                 Time     
  1.  Rosberg         ART                  1:31.459
  2.  Jani            Racing Engineering   1:32.457  +  0.998
  3.  Kovalainen      Arden                1:32.652  +  1.193
  4.  Pantano         Super Nova           1:32.666  +  1.207
  5.  Speed           iSport               1:32.707  +  1.248
  6.  Premat          ART                  1:32.908  +  1.449
  7.  Yoshimoto       BCN Competicion      1:33.005  +  1.546
  8.  Viso            BCN Competicion      1:33.102  +  1.643
  9.  Bruni           Coloni               1:33.119  +  1.660
 10.  Pla             DPR                  1:33.172  +  1.713
 11.  Lapierre        Arden                1:33.359  +  1.900
 12.  Garcia          Racing Engineering   1:33.602  +  2.143
 13.  Alvarez         Campos Racing        1:33.632  +  2.173
 14.  Piccione        Durango              1:33.634  +  2.175
 15.  Monfardini      Durango              1:33.828  +  2.369
 16.  Hernandez       Campos Racing        1:34.131  +  2.672
 17.  Lopez           DAMS                 1:34.192  +  2.733
 18.  Piquet          Hitech Piquet        1:34.256  +  2.797
 19.  Fauzy           DAMS                 1:34.608  +  3.149
 20.  Negrao          Hitech Piquet        1:34.685  +  3.226
 21.  Carroll         Super Nova           1:35.029  +  3.570
 22.  Artam           iSport               1:35.123  +  3.664
 23.  Lauda           Coloni               1:35.186  +  3.727
 24.  Mondini         DPR                  1:35.916  +  4.457

All timing unofficial