Jolyon Palmer set the seventh fastest time in GP2 qualifying at the Hungaroring this afternoon (Friday).

The 23-year-old sat at the top of the times twice during the first half of the session, but late improvements from rival drivers saw him pushed down to seventh in the final stages.

Palmer was set to improve his best lap on his second set of tyres, but lost a considerable amount of time when another driver went off in front, spraying dirt and gravel across the track in the second sector. Traffic on another attempt also ruled out any further chance of improvement.

Johnny Cecotto has been issued with a three place grid penalty for causing the accident with Jolyon in free practice which cost the Briton valuable running this morning. As such Palmer will be promoted to sixth on the grid for the Feature Race which starts at 14.40 tomorrow (Saturday).

Palmer won the Feature Race at the Hungaroring last year, starting from seventh on the grid.

Jolyon commented: "It hasn't been a great day today. After missing out on track time this morning I didn't do the optimum job on the first set of tyres and was P3. Then, as I was improving on the second set, someone went off just ahead and brought a lot of dirt onto the track in the middle sector, meaning I couldn't slow the car down properly and had to abort the lap.

"It's disappointing to be seventh but I will start sixth tomorrow and will be pushing hard to move forward."

GP2 Qualifying, Hungary result:

1. F Nasr, Carlin, 1m28.437s
2. T Dillmann, Caterham +0.182s
3. A Pic, Campos, +0.207s
4. K Sato, +0.222s
5. J Cecotto, Trident, +0.273s
6. S Vandoorne, ART GP, +0.304s
7. J Palmer, DAMS, +0.355s
8. R Marciello, Racing Engineering, +0.496s
9. M Sorensen, MP Motorsport, +0.499s
10. S Richelmi, DAMS, +0.505s