Grosjean grabs first pole in Hungary

Asia Series champion Romain Grosjean scored the first pole position of his main GP2 Series career at the Hungaroring on Friday afternoon, just beating Andi Zuber and Lucas di Grassi by fractions of a second in a thrilling session.

Grosjean lapped his ART Grand Prix car in 1:27.762, which was 0.082 seconds quicker than Zuber's Piquet Sports car, and Zuber was just 0.002 seconds faster than di Grassi's Campos-run machine.

The Frenchman timed his run perfectly, setting the time with less than 60 seconds on the clock. He had a scare early on as he encountered a slow BCN car on the exit of the flat-out Turn 3, and had to pass it on the grass.

Vitaly Petrov (Campos) left it even later and set his time after the clock had zeroed, so the Russian will start fourth.

Karun Chandhok (iSport), who had spent much of the session second, fell to fifth in the closing moments. He was powerless to respond to the late improvements as he spun off overtaking the touring Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS) and stalled.

Mike Conway will start sixth for Trident Racing, ahead of championship protagonists Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) and Bruno Senna (iSport) - the latter almost half a second off the leading pace just when he needs to eat into Pantano's convincing points lead.

Senna had been P2 at the halfway point, but didn't improve his time enough to stay with the leaders.

Pastor Maldonado's Piquet Sports car was unable to be repaired in time for qualifying after his free practice shunt, so he will start Saturday's race from the back of the grid.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Romain Grosjean ART 1:27.782 2. Andi Zuber Piquet Sports 1:27.864 +0.082 3. Lucas di Grassi Campos 1:27.866 +0.084 4. Vitaly Petrov Campos 1:28.035 +0.253 5. Karun Chandhok iSport 1:28.062 +0.280 6. Mike Conway Trident 1:28.123 +0.341 7. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 1:28.203 +0.421 8. Bruno Senna iSport 1:28.237 +0.455 9. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 1:28.413 +0.631 10. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1:28.513 +0.731 11. Sebastien Buemi Arden 1:28.562 +0.780 12. Sakon Yamamoto ART 1:28.730 +0.948 13. Andy Soucek Super Nova 1:28.750 +0.968 14. Diego Nunes DPR 1:28.756 +0.974 15. Alvaro Parente Super Nova 1:28.921 +1.139 16. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:28.926 +1.144 17. Ho-Pin Tung Trident 1:29.010 +1.228 18. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:29.094 +1.312 19. Adrian Valles BCN 1:29.188 +1.406 20. Roldan Rodriguez FMS 1:29.458 +1.676 21. Luca Filippi Arden 1:29.876 +2.094 22. Michael Herck DPR 1:30.021 +2.239 23. Carlos Iaconelli BCN 1:30.220 +2.438 24. Marko Asmer FMS 1:30.258 +2.476 25. Alberto Valerio Durango no time 26. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports no time