PREMA grabs points finishes at Hungaroring

PREMA Racing faced an up and down Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine weekend at Hungaroring, as race variables impacted the team’s results, forcing its drivers to be content with points finishes.

Paul Aron was the team’s main scorer. In race 1, an issue at the start saw him drop back, but the Estonian rebounded to take P6. In race 2, starting from row three, he was hit by another driver early in the running, and while he showed great pace, the lack of passing opportunities made the rest at the Hungarian Grand Prix Venue.

Dino Beganovic had a difficult run in qualifying as he struggled to find the right chemistry with the track. In race 1, he bounced back from P11 to P7, showing good potential in race trim, but contact in the second race made him slide down to P16. The Ferrari Driver Academy-supported Swede is still holding the championship lead. 

Rookie Colombian-American Sebastian Montoya made progress throughout the weekend, and after finishing P16 in the first race, he rebounded to take P8 on Sunday despite starting from P17 in a promising run.

Facing a notably tough track, Hamda Al Qubaisi showcased remarkable improvements in terms of race pace despite still looking to make a breakthrough in qualifying. The Emirati female racer, as well as her teammates, is now looking forward to the next round of the series at Spa-Francorchamps. 

“Overall I think we had a lot of potential this weekend, but we were generally unlucky. First of all, we were last in the pit lane which put us on the back foot as we got one less lap, and that one lap counted a lot here. Considering that we still did a really good job in qualifying 1, being the fastest in our group and starting second. I had an issue with the start, and then I got hit in race 1. We finished in P6 even though our pace was really good. In qualy two, we lost first place. Just before the start, we had an engine issue which we managed to fix. I got in a tough situation at the start when I lost one position and I was hit again. I had great pace again, and I was putting pressure on the drivers in front. Overall, we had great potential, the pace was good, I was happy with the car, but then some things that happened didn’t allow us to show that potential.”

Qualifying 2: P1 Gr.B

Starting Grid Race 1: P2

Qualifying 2: P3 Gr.B

Starting Grid Race 2: P5

Fastest lap: 1:38.905

Race 1: P6

Fastest lap: 1:38.514

Race 2: P7

“Tough weekend, really not what we expected. I really didn’t have the pace as I struggled in terms of the feeling with the car. It’s really important to do a good qualy on this track, but we did a good job in the first race to come back with P7 from P11. Starting in the middle of the pack is always tricky, with many incidents happening as we saw in race 2 when I was hit twice from behind, which compromised the race. We need to sit down and work hard for Spa and come back to where we were at the beginning of the season.”

Qualifying 1: P6 Gr.A

Starting Grid Race 1: P11

Qualifying 2: P6 Gr.A

Starting Grid Race 2: P12

Fastest lap: 1:39.257

Race 1: P7

Fastest lap: 1:38.708

Race 2: P16

“It was a difficult weekend, my first time at Hungaroring. We worked a lot with the team to understand the track and also on how to improve my driving as this is a very particular track on the way how to drive. On day 1 qualifying was very good, and I was really happy with my lap, obviously, I was disappointed with the drop from P3 to P6, but the speed was quite good. Then in race 1, I made a couple of mistakes but later found a good pace, but maybe it was too late, and I used it more as a reference. Day 2 was a little more complicated. Qualifying was a bit different compared to what I was used to. Starting so far back on the pit lane, we were really limited in terms of strategies we could do. Our result was compromised by the pit-lane position. Then in the race, the car felt really good. We made a couple of changes and worked with the engineers on understanding what I needed to do. In the end, it was quite positive, we got some points in the bag, no one expected it, but we showed the potential is there, we just need to put everything together.”

Qualifying 1: P6 Gr.B

Starting Grid Race 1: P12

Qualifying 2: P9 Gr.B

Starting Grid Race 2: P17

Fastest lap: 1:39.162

Race 1: P16

Fastest lap: 1’38″772

Race 2: P8

“This weekend I struggled a lot with pace so it was quite difficult to get a good starting position in qualifying for the races. However I’m quite happy with the race pace, especially in race 2, and I think it was another step in understanding the car and learning as much as possible. I’m looking forward to working even more with the team to try and get closer in terms of pace and to keep improving.”

Qualifying 1: P16 Gr.B

Starting Grid Race 1: P32

Qualifying 1: P16 Gr.B

Starting Grid Race 2: P31

Fastest lap: 1:40.391

Race 1: P31

Fastest lap: 1:39.974

Race 2: P26

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing