GP2 Series championship leader Romain Grosjean headed the field in the free practice session at the Hungaroring.
The DAMS driver moved to the top of the timesheets with his first competitive laptime, going some four tenths quicker than recent series returnee Adam Carroll.
Racing Engineering driver Christian Vietoris took top spot away from Grosjean around ten minutes into the half hour session, only for the Frenchman to take it straight back again.
Vietoris improved his effort to close to just 0.068s behind Grosjean, before the field returned to the pits in the middle of the session.
Once they emerged again for the final ten minutes there were very few improvements from any of the drivers. This allowed Grosjean to hold on in P1, ahead of Vietoris with Giedo van der Garde third for Addax. The Dutchman did not complete as many laps as his rivals, spending much of the session in the pits with reported mechanical issues.
Jules Bianchi was fourth ahead of Vietoris' teammate Dani Clos and Carroll. Fabio Leimer was seventh and Davide Valsecchi eighth. British duo Max Chilton and Sam Bird completed the first ten in ninth and tenth respectively.
Nurburgring feature race victor Luca Filippi was 11th, one place ahead of Mikhail Aleshin who returns to Carlin in place of Alvaro Parente, who is busy racing McLaren's GT car in the Spa 24 Hours.
Marcus Ericsson and Stefano Coletti both made mistakes in the first half of the session, bringing early ends to their time on track. Their best efforts remained good enough for 14th and 19th respectively.
Free practice times:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Romain Grosjean | DAMS | 1:31.173 | 13 | |
| 2 | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | 1:31.241 | 0.068 | 15 |
| 3 | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 1:31.345 | 0.172 | 10 |
| 4 | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 1:31.680 | 0.507 | 14 |
| 5 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 1:31.725 | 0.552 | 14 |
| 6 | Adam Carroll | Super Nova Racing | 1:31.824 | 0.651 | 15 |
| 7 | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 1:31.845 | 0.672 | 16 |
| 8 | Davide Valsecchi | Caterham Team AirAsia | 1:31.855 | 0.682 | 16 |
| 9 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:31.909 | 0.736 | 14 |
| 10 | Sam Bird | iSport International | 1:31.985 | 0.812 | 12 |
| 11 | Luca Filippi | Scuderia Coloni | 1:32.000 | 0.827 | 14 |
| 12 | Mikhail Aleshin | Carlin | 1:32.091 | 0.918 | 16 |
| 13 | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 1:32.101 | 0.928 | 13 |
| 14 | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 1:32.106 | 0.933 | 7 |
| 15 | Josef Král | Arden International | 1:32.117 | 0.944 | 13 |
| 16 | Pal Varhaug | DAMS | 1:32.171 | 0.998 | 14 |
| 17 | Luiz Razia | Caterham Team AirAsia | 1:32.210 | 1.037 | 15 |
| 18 | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:32.219 | 1.046 | 14 |
| 19 | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 1:32.464 | 1.291 | 5 |
| 20 | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 1:32.487 | 1.314 | 15 |
| 21 | Rodolfo González | Trident Racing | 1:32.600 | 1.427 | 15 |
| 22 | Julian Leal | Rapax | 1:32.636 | 1.463 | 14 |
| 23 | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 1:32.659 | 1.486 | 13 |
| 24 | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | 1:32.676 | 1.503 | 13 |
| 25 | Kevin Mirocha | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:32.687 | 1.514 | 13 |
| 26 | Esteban Gutiérrez | Lotus ART | 1:32.863 | 1.690 | 13 |
