Conditions were dry for the morning 30 minute Free Practice session and Christian Vietoris was vying for fastest time from the start and it wasn’t long before the young German’s name was top of the timing sheets The Racing Engineering driver was then involved in a very tight battle with Series leader Grosjean and, although he had to settle for the second fastest time, Vietoris was just 0.06s behind the Frenchman at the finish.

Dani Clos was running just as competitively as his team-mate and he finished the session in an excellent 5th place less than half a second behind Vietoris.

With the predicted thunderstorms not arriving, the 30 minute Qualifying session was also held in warm and dry conditions and the Racing Engineering team were looking for a positive result after the Free Practice. However both Vietoris and Clos soon found that traffic on the circuit would cost them dearly.

The twisty Hungaroring circuit is not an easy place to overtake and it is vital for drivers to use their mirrors and not to block other drivers when on a slowing down lap.
Unfortunately it seemed as if every time Vietoris or Clos went for a fast lap they found themselves the victim of either heavy traffic or a driver not following the correct track etiquette.

Dani Clos: “The car was not very good at the beginning. I don’t think we improved from free practice to qualifying. Additionally, there are drivers, who just don't look in their mirrors on their slow laps. Every time I was on a quick lap there was somebody wandering around on the racing-line. I lost every good lap because of this. It's not where we wanted to start, but tomorrow is about racing and not just driving one fast lap.”

Christian Vietoris: “I think there was quite a bit too much traffic I encountered on track. We had oversteer, which we improved for the second stint, but then there was the traffic. This made things much more complicated than expected. The goal is to make it to the top 8 in tomorrow's race as overtaking is quite difficult on this track.”

Thomas Couyotopoulo, Racing Engineering’s Sporting Director: “Obviously a disappointing qualifying for both cars, especially after a positive free practice session earlier today. There are 20 cars within one second, so each little lift caused by traffic has dramatic consequences on the position. We did inform our drivers during the entire qualifying and they have been very correct with other drivers on track during their fast laps, but it's a pity we suffered from others not doing so. On the other hand, our car needs a few improvements for the ultimate performance under these conditions, we are working on it.”