GP3 Series

Vainio Flies To GP3 Pole Position In Hungary

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Aaro Vainio - Photo Credit: Daniel Kalisz/GP3 Media Service

Aaro Vainio continued his dominant pace at the GP3 Series round at the Hungaroring by taking a convincing pole position and the four points that come with it.

The Finn, who had trailed points leader Mitch Evans by 17 points coming into the weekend, set a best lap that was two and a half tenths of a second better than anyone else could manage.

Just as in Friday practice, Antonio Felix da Costa was the driver that got closest to Vainio and will start from alongside him on the front row in the first race. Evans took third, while Marlon Stockinger continued his pace from Friday in fourth place.

David Fumanelli set the fifth fastest time, but the MW Arden driver was subsequently penalised for impeding another driver and will take a drop of three grid spots. That should promote Daniel Abt to fifth, Conor Daly to sixth and Kevin Ceccon to seventh.

Matias Laine was ninth, pipping Hockenheim winner Patric Niederhauser by 0.001s. Niderhauser in turn was exactly a tenth faster than his Jenzer Motorsport teammate Robert Visoiu. There was also only 0.001s separating 12th placed William Buller and fellow Briton Lewis Williamson.

Giovanni Venturini was 14th ahead of Tio Ellinas and Alex Brundle. Facu Regalia was 17th after his switch to Atech CRS, while the man who's racing the Jenzer car he drove at Silverstone, Alex Fontana, was 18th.

Alice Powell was 19th, while local favourite Tamas Pal Kiss suffered a nightmare qualifying and could only manage 20th place. Dmitry Suranovich was 21st while Robert Cregan was 22nd, but he has been handed the same penalty as Fumanelli. That should promote Fabiano Machado, Ethan Ringel and Vicky Piria, leaving Cregan alongside Ocean teammate Carmen Jorda on the last row of the grid. The Spanish female racer was nearly three seconds adrift of Piria's time, and 5.7s off pole.

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Peter joined the TCF team in September 2010 and covers GP2 and GP3 along with WTCC and Formula Two. You can find him on twitter at @PeteAllen_
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