Hubert takes pole for the Hungaroring
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| Written by | Photo: Fanni Váradi |
The 30 minutes long qualifying session started in sunny conditions in the morning. All drivers followed Jake Hughes who headed first to the track with MP Motorsport’s Niko Kari brought out the red flag to stop the session only 5 minutes after the start due to a collision on his first fast lap with Nikita Mazepin after going wide at Turn 4. The Finnish driver’s session ended as he got stuck in the grave with broken suspension.
When the session restarted Pedro Piquet was fastest cutting the line at 1:32.432 until Callum Ilott set the pace into the 1:32s before Hubert arrived with a half a second improve on his teammate’s time. At halfway the session all driver pitted to put on their second set of Pirelli tyres.
In the second half of the session ART drivers were taking the first place racing against each other when Leonardo Pulcini arrived on them after yesterday continuing his great performance at the Hungaroring.
3 minutes before the end Anthoine Hubert stopped the clocked at 1:31.409 with Callum Ilott and David Beckmann behind him. Despite some damage from the incident earlier Nikita Mazepin managed to recover from the collision and put a 1:31.484 lap together qualifying second after Hubert. ART Grand Prix’s Frenchman kept the first place despite some attacks and scored his second pole position in a row ahead of Nikita Mazepin and Leonardo Pulcini.
Comments of the top three:
Anthoine Hubert: Here you have to do the perfect lap without any mistakes as you do not have too many chances everything counts. We worked very hard since yesterday’s free practice to make everything work our well. The tyre degradation was not huge this morning but we don’t know what to expect in the afternoon. I will try to do a good start keep the lead and make a gap to the second drive but anything can happen rain or safety car I will try to just stay focused.
Nikita Mazepin: I was on my warm up lap when the car behind me was pushing and lost the car so we collided. I was in the wrong place in the wrong time but it happens sometimes, the car was not perfect it was a bit damaged but I did what I could do. Hopefully it will be done for the race.
Leonardo Pulcini: We started with good potential. I felt the car very good so I was focusing on doing a very clear lap but it was difficult to put a lap together on this track. My time was good but then I lost the car in the last corner of my last lap which could have been enough for the pole position so sorry for the team. I have a good position for the race but I will have to take care of my tyres. I am ready to fight and it will be a fun race.
2018 GP3 Series Round 5 – Budapest, Hungary – Provisional Qualifying Classification
DRIVER |
TEAM |
LAPTIME |
LAP | |
1 |
Anthoine Hubert |
ART Grand Prix |
1:31.409 |
13 |
2 |
Nikita Mazepin |
ART Grand Prix |
1:31.484 |
12 |
3 |
Leonardo Pulcini |
Campos Racing |
1:31.515 |
11 |
4 |
Jake Hughes |
ART Grand Prix |
1:31.652 |
13 |
5 |
Callum Ilott |
ART Grand Prix |
1:31.697 |
12 |
6 |
Ryan Tveter |
Trident |
1:31.832 |
14 |
7 |
David Beckmann |
Trident |
1:31.911 |
13 |
8 |
Dorian Boccolacci |
MP Motorsport |
1:31.964 |
13 |
9 |
Joey Mawson |
Arden International |
1:32.046 |
13 |
10 |
Juan Manuel Correa |
Jenzer Motorsport |
1:32.162 |
12 |
11 |
Giuliano Alesi |
Trident |
1:32.164 |
11 |
12 |
Diego Menchaca |
Campos Racing |
1:32.172 |
12 |
13 |
Pedro Piquet |
Trident |
1:32.212 |
11 |
14 |
Simo Laaksonen |
Campos Racing |
1:32.265 |
11 |
15 |
Tatiana Calderon |
Jenzer Motorsport |
1:32.266 |
12 |
16 |
Gabriel Aubry |
Arden International |
1:32.768 |
12 |
17 |
Jannes Fittje |
Jenzer Motorsport |
1:32.944 |
11 |
18 |
Julien Falchero |
Arden International |
1:33.000 |
12 |
19 |
Niko Kari |
MP Motorsport |
1:35.070 |
2 |
*Devlin DeFrancesco (MP Motorsport) will take no further part in the Budapest weekend due to illness.
