PREMA Racing locks out Feature Race front row
PREMA Racing had a brilliant start to the weekend today at Hungaroring, with Arthur Leclerc and Dennis Hauger putting up a dominant qualifying performance to take a front-row lockout for Sunday’s feature race.
The Monegasque posted an outstanding flying lap in the middle stages of the session and remained on top despite the efforts made to dislodge the #2 car from pole. In an incredibly close session, Norweigian Dennis Hauger ended up less than one tenth of a second away from his teammate, as 19 drivers ended up covered by only one second.
Olli Caldwell showed great potential too after being in the top-5 in practice, but could not find the right chemistry with the track in the deciding moments. Although he was only 0.5 seconds away from the pole time, that meant P9 in the end. However, the Brit will start the reverse-grid opening race from the second row with a good chance to bite back, while Hauger and Leclerc will have more ground to recover.
#1 DENNIS HAUGER
“It was for sure one of the messiest qualifying sessions this season. I made a bit of a mistake with the first set of tyres, and we got back in the sequence, but we struggled to start the engine quite a few times, so we had to wait for the last minute. There was a bit of traffic, nothing dramatic, and I’m pretty happy with my last lap after everything that happened during the session. It’s good to be on top with Arthur, he did a great job in his lap. It’s a good starting position for the weekend.”
Qualifying: P2
Fastest lap: 1:33.253
#2 ARTHUR LECLERC
“I’m so happy about today’s pole position! It was a difficult beginning of the season, but the work is finally paying off. We are proving that we can improve race by race, and I’m just so delighted! The weekend is not finished, so we have to continue the work on Saturday and Sunday!”
Qualifying: P1
Fastest lap: 1’33″164
#3 OLLI CALDWELL
“It has been a disappointing qualifying. The pace in the car was there, but I just lost confidence during the run. We need to look at the data and see what happened, but the pace is obviously there. We will try to maximize the points from the front two rows tomorrow.”
Qualifying: P9
Fastest lap: 1:33.704
Source | Photo: PREMA Racing