Carlin's Jean-Eric Vergne repeated his searing morning form to head the Formula Renault 3.5 series' second practice session at the Hungaroring.
The Frenchman lowered his opening session benchmark by over three tenths of second to record a time of 1m34.673s.
Fortec's Alexander Rossi was just 0.003sec adrift in second. The former GP3 race winner is overdue a strong points haul following an incident-filled three races.
Championship leader Robert Wickens bounced back from an engine problem in the earlier session to take third spot.
Wickens enjoys a 30-point lead in the drivers' standings. During the lunch break, the Canadian completed a shakedown of a Lotus Renault R30 Formula 1 car in preparation for a demonstration run tomorrow, his reward for being the mid-distance points' leader.
Monaco podium finisher Brendon Hartley took fourth for Gravity-Charouz, just 0.097sec ahead of Nelson Panciatici (KMP Racing).
Rossi's Fortec teammate Cesar Ramos, a double 2011 pole-sitter, claimed sixth place.
After being sidelined from a GP2 program with budget problems earlier this season, reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion Mikhail Aleshin's return to the series with KMP Racing showed signs of progress. The Russian improved on his morning effort of 17th to seal 10th this afternoon.
The remaining 2011 debutantes, Adam Carroll (P1 Motorsport) and Marcos Martinez (Pons Racing), took 18th and 21st, respectively.
Fairuz Fauzy encountered technical problems with his Mofaz machine that restricted his running to 12 laps. As a consequence, the Malaysian GP2 regular languished in last position.