Russell Dominates Friday practice at the Hungaroring

Following a successful two days long test this June, GP3 Series returned to the sunny Budapest to have its fourth of the season.

The program opened with the free practice on Friday evening in warm conditions when all GP3 drivers drove out to the circuit except Jenzer Motorsport’s Italian, Alessio Lorandi.

The 45 minutes long session went well with continuous changes between the positions until Giuliano Alesi hit a marker board at the halfway mark of the track and spread some debris all over the asphalt causing a red flag session at the Hungaroring.

After the 8 minutes long period the session restarted and most of the drivers returned to race aiming top laps. Current leader, Jack Aitken had some issues with the restart so decided to pit with the purpose of finding the solution with his team.

As the free practice was getting to its end, a big battle started for the first position.

First, Arjun Maini run a quickest lap with his teammate Alessio Lorandi sprinting behind him. The Italian made it a bit too wide at Turn 11 conceding the top place which then started swapping between Fukuzumi, Russel and Hyman with the Campos driver being quickest in the middle sector.

The South African already felt P1 in his pocket, when George Russel went for another fast lap. The Briton had an incredible lap around the circuit with two purple sectors at Sector 1 and 2. He grabbed the first place with a 1:32.255 lap ahead of Raoul Hyman and Nirei Fukuzumi.  The grid was tense behind the top 3 Kari, Maini, Aitken, Joerg, Pulcini, Calderon and Baptista were all with a second of the championship leader George Russell.

Field’s new driver Matthieu Vaxiviere had 16 laps and took 15th place on the free practice in Hungary.

Free Practice Classification
  

Driver Team Laptime Laps
1. George Russell ART Grand Prix 1:32.255 19
2. Raoul Hyman Campos Racing 1:32.340 18
3. Nirei Fukuzumi ART Grand Prix 1:32.578 16
4. Niko Kari Arden International 1:32.605 16
5. Arjun Maini Jenzer Motorsport 1:32.621 16
6. Jack Aitken ART Grand Prix 1:32.624 19
7. Kevin Jörg Trident 1:32.796 17
8. Leonardo Pulcini Arden International 1:32.856 16
9. Tatiana Calderon DAMS 1:32.918 19
10. Bruno Baptista DAMS 1:32.973 20
11. Ryan Tveter Trident 1:33.060 20
12. Anthoine Hubert ART Grand Prix 1:33.126 20
13. Dorian Boccolacci Trident 1:33.169 18
14. Steijn Schothorst Arden International 1:33.207 18
15. Matthieu Vaxivière DAMS 1:33.407 16
16. Giuliano Alesi Trident 1:33.596 18
17. Alessio Lorandi Jenzer Motorsport 1:33.844 19
18. Julien Falchero Campos Racing 1:33.943 17
19. Marcos Siebert Campos Racing 1:34.847 16