F3: Laurens van Heupen starts from pole position for the first time in his career

Laurens van Heupen showed the best time in Formula 3 qualifying during the eighth round of the season in Hungary. For the ART driver this was the first pole in his career. Nikola Tsolov will start with him from the front row during Sunday’s race.

On Friday, there was a cloudless sky above the Hungaroring, and under the blazing sun, the track asphalt had warmed up to +57C at the start of qualifying. The start of the session was delayed by five minutes, but after the traffic light turned green at the exit of the pit lane, the drivers did not delay and went to the track.

The fast attempts started after two warm-up laps, in which the riders rode in a tight group and hindered each other. During the first fast lap Sofia Flörsch spun, she was able to return to the track, but the set of tires was damaged.

The riders replaced each other at the top of the protocol and Joshua Dufek rode the first series of fast laps with the best result with a result of 1:34.414s. Intrafuvasak lost two tenths to his teammate and Nikita Bedrin completed the top three. Championship leader Gabriele Mini was eleventh on his first attempt.

The riders returned for the second attempt when there were seventeen minutes left before the end of qualifying. During the warm-up laps the track was busy again, but everyone was able to complete their attempts.

Lawrence van Heupen was the first to improve Dufek’s time, but the Dutchman’s result was in turn surpassed by Leon, Fornaroli and Ramos. As a result of the attempt, the best time remained for Leonardo Fornaroli: 1:34.173 s. Mini only showed the fifteenth fastest time in his fastest lap.

Six minutes before the end of the session, the drivers returned to the track for the final attempt. Van Heupen led the timesheet (1:33.935 s) and Nikola Tsolov moved up to second place. Leonardo Fornaroli could not improve his time and dropped back to third place.

One of the title contenders, Luke Browning, crashed his car exiting Turn 11, which led to the first yellow and then red flags with 24 seconds left in the session, so almost nobody could improve.

Gabiriele Mini set the fifteenth fastest time and Arvid Lindblad, who took second place in the individual competition, set the twenty-second fastest time.

The starting grid for the sprint is reversed: the drivers in the top twelve positions will start in reverse order tomorrow. Tasanapol Intrafuvasak will therefore start from pole position on Saturday. Callum Voisin will start the race with him from the front row.