The weekend started well as Aurelien qualified second fastest in the first of the weekends qualifying sessions. A delay off the start caused the Frenchman to drop back to fourth where he levelled until the end of the race; picking up 12 points. Despite the torrential rain on Sunday morning, Aurelien posted fourth quickest qualifying time for the afternoon Race. An early pit stop on lap 6 of race two, before the safety car was deployed to remove Viktor Baptista’s (RP Motorsport) car at turn 12, gave Aurelien the advantage to snatch third place on the podium and another 15 points to his tally.
Egor had another difficult weekend. The Russian qualified thirteenth for Race one, struggling with the newly laid asphalt, he was unable to post a time to match his collective best sector times. The race showed no mercy, as Egor was struck by Alfonso Celis Jr (AVF) on lap 8, for which the Mexican received a 3 place grid penalty for Sunday’s race two. Sunday was another dismal day for Egor, with the dreadful track conditions, he spun on his qualifying out lap and stalled the car, leaving no time to qualify. Egor was not alone, with four other Formula V8 drivers outside the 110% qualifying time. There was a small virtue despite the negative morning session, Egor steadied his way through the field to finish in ninth, picking up two points.
Aurelien: “It was a good weekend in Budapest! We still have good points scored for the championship after Motorland. Saturday morning was really good with P2 in qualifying, but the race was more difficult. I had a difficult start with lot of wheel spin and I was P4 after the first corner. The pace was not really good with a big degradation of the front tyres during the race.
On Sunday the conditions were really hard with lots of water on the track and no grip with the new tyres. I was fourth in qualifying and after a very good strategy and a really good pit stop, thanks to the team, I finished this really difficult race on the podium!
So yet another good weekend, thanks to my team we leave Budapest with the 2nd position in the championship.”
Egor: “Another time difficult weekend. I struggled to adapt to the new surface around Hungaroring so that is why the pace was not really there. Aurelien did very well so that shows that the car is quick so we hope to be back on a good way in Spa next month.”
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