Andreas Zuber stormed to the top of the timesheets in free practice this morning at the Hungaroring, but it was a case of good news / bad news for his Piquet Sports team when teammate Pastor Maldonado had a huge crash during the session, leaving the team with a heavy work load ahead of qualifying this afternoon.
The session took place under fine clear skies, albeit with temperatures down from the usual oppressive Hungarian heat, and the times was incredibly tight at the top: Zuber just edged Giorgio Pantano and Lucas di Grassi in a session which also saw Romain Grosjean, Karun Chandhok and Vitaly Petrov within two tenths of the top spot.
While many of the competitors tripped over themselves at least once as they looked for the edge, Maldonado was the only driver to hit the barriers: the Venezuelan speared across the gravel at turn 8 at the 20 minute mark and took a big impact with the barriers, tearing off most of the right side of his car. Nevertheless he still finished the session in tenth place, just behind Javier Villa, Jérôme D’Ambrosio and Sébastien Buemi.
Fifteen drivers finished the session within a second of the top spot, with all bar three within another second, and with conditions expected to hold for the rest of the day this afternoon’s qualifying session promises to be as exciting as always.
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