PRACTICE: Beganovic pips Minì to top spot in Budapest opener

Dino Beganovic secured top spot in Free Practice for DAMS Lucas Oil. The Swede put in a 1:30.720 to wind up fastest, just 0.015s ahead of MP Motorsport's Gabriele Minì. Nico Varrone completed a tight top three, 0.021s off P1 for Van Amersfoort Racing.

Hitech’s Colton Herta set the early pace on a 1:33.077 in the opening 10 minutes of the session.

Teammate Ritomo Miyata then took over in P1, with a 1:32.053 the new time to beat. Rafael Câmara delivered a 1:31.484 to then go to the top for Invicta Racing by over half a second.

Sebastiàn Montoya and then Herta cut that down to four-tenths on their next laps, before Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak went to P2 for ART Grand Prix, 0.219s off top spot with less than half an hour to go.

Martinius Stenshorne got closer still, moving himself up into P2, 0.102s off Câmara's time. That was before the Brazilian delivered an improvement of his own to move onto a 1:31.144.

Montoya and Minì then followed across the line to go second and third respectively.

Rafael Villagómez went to fourth place for Van Amersfoort before the Red Flag was out after Mari Boya found the barriers at Turn 1 following a big lock-up.

Running resumed with 19 minutes to go, and everyone was back out onto the circuit to get some more laps on the board.

Minì dethroned Câmara at the top of the times as he set a 1:30.744 to go four-tenths clear of anyone. Nikola Tsolov then went to P2, 0.388s off the Italian's effort.

Top spot changed hands again as the clock approached 10 minutes to go, with Beganovic going fastest. Tsolov then went quicker but lost his time for exceeding track limits.

That left the Swede top of the pile on a 1:30.720, with Nico Varrone right behind in P2, 0.021s off. Minì then managed to split the two on his next attempt, going second and just 0.015s behind Beganovic.

With the chequered flag waving, Tsolov wound up fourth ahead of Câmara, who went to P5 right at the end. Alexander Dunne was sixth ahead of Oliver Goethe, Stenshorne, Roman Bilinski and Laurens van Hoepen in the top 10.

Qualifying takes place on Friday afternoon, with the green light scheduled for 15:55 local time.