Jordan King continued his good form as he claimed two more points finishes including a podium finish at the Hungaroring, and now sits sixth in the GP2 points standings.
The Racing Engineering driver continues to enjoy his racing with those at the front of the field, and although admitting he arrived in Hungary high on confidence, he knows there will be instances where things do not go the way he wishes.
“I’m really enjoying mixing it with the frontrunners in GP2,” said King. “The standard is very high – just look how close it is in the fight for the championship. You have to be absolutely on top of your game – and the car – in every session.
“My confidence was pretty high heading into the Budapest weekend, but there are always wake-up calls in this series – it’s not supposed to be easy, of course.”
After struggling with the softer compound tyre in the early stages of the Feature race, King was able to make the early switch to the harder compound on which he felt more comfortable, and capitalised on a last lap retirement from Jimmy Eriksson to secure eighth place and reverse grid pole for Sunday’s Sprint race despite suffering from brake issues.
“We chose to start on the option [softer] tyre as a safety net for a likely safety-car appearance,” revealed King. “I struggled for pace on them, to be honest.
“Once I’d made my pit stop and changed onto the prime [harder] rubber, I was able to hang on to eighth place, which gave me pole position for the reversed-grid sprint race.
“I mentioned to the team that the brakes weren’t quite right and that I was struggling to pass people on the brakes, but they soon sorted it out in readiness for Sunday’s race.”
King led the Sprint race into the first corner but was unable to maintain that position after the safety car restart, and watched Sergey Sirotkin pass him around turn three and into turn four, and was forced therefore to settle for second, but he was still happy to secure his third consecutive Sprint race podium finish.
“I got out front and held on for four laps,” said King. “I didn’t maintain enough front-tyre temperature during that early safety-car period, so I was a sitting duck for [Sergey] Sirotkin at the restart. His pace was very strong, but I held on to second, comfortably ahead of my team-mate [Norman] Nato.
“It was great to be on the podium for the third straight weekend. The top step would’ve been better, of course, but scoring big points is what’s crucial, especially when you consider we’ve had nine different winners in the 12 races so far.”
