Jolyon Palmer made an impressive start to his GP2 weekend in Budapest by going fourth fastest during today's (Friday) closely fought practice session, which saw the top 17 drivers lap inside a second.

Drivers were greeted with bright, sunny conditions as the 30-minute session got underway with Jolyon, on the prime tyre, going ninth fastest on his first flying lap. The 21-year-old Brit then went P7 at the halfway point and could have gone even quicker had it not been for a lock-up at Turn 14.

After a brief second run, Jolyon returned to the pits for a second time before going out with two minutes left on the clock. With time for just one quick lap, Jolyon posted personal bests in both sectors one and three to finish an excellent P4.

Speaking afterwards Jolyon said: "It was a decent session and I managed to do my best time right at the end of the session. We can improve the car for qualifying I think and then we should be fighting for pole. Traffic can be a bit of an issue here so I hope it is ok this afternoon."

Addax's Josef Kral finished the session on top ahead of Racing's Fabio Leimer and James Calado driving for Lotus GP. Jolyon is next on track at 15:00 (UK time) for today's qualifying session with full coverage and live timing available on his official website.

GP2 Hungaroring, practice results:

1. J Kral, Addax, 1:29.573s
2. F Leimer, Racing, +0.159s
3. J Calado, Lotus GP, +0.264s
4. J Palmer, iSport, +0.343s
5. G VD Garde, Caterham, +0.370s
6. M Ericsson, iSport, +0.388s
7. D Valsecchi, DAMS, +0.480s
8. V Guerin, Ocean, +0.520s
9. E Gutierrez, Lotus GP, +0.558s
10. S Richelmi, Trident, +0.653s