European Formula 3

Alex Palou Puts Hitech Grand Prix on Top of Day two in Hungary

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Alex Palou was quickest on day two in Hungary
Credit: Sam Bloxham/FIA Formula 2

Hitech Grand Prix duo Alex Palou and Enaam Ahmed ended day two of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship pre-season test at the Hungaroring at the top of the timing screens, with all twenty-three drivers within 1.204 seconds of each other.

Spanish racer Palou, a race winner in 2017 in both the Japanese Formula 3 Championship and World Series Formula V8 3.5, had shown strong pace on the opening day of the test on Thursday, and came out fighting once more on Friday, leaping to the top of the pecking order with a lap during the morning session of 1:34.308s, which ended up being more than two-tenths of a second better than anyone else could muster throughout the day.

Ahmed, the 2017 BRDC British Formula 3 champion, set the pace in the afternoon session, with his lap of 1:34.534s just 0.032 seconds better than Palou’s effort.

The Hitech Grand Prix duo finished ahead of a quartet of Prema Theodore Racing drivers, with Ralf Aron edging out day one pacesetter Mick Schumacher for third place by just 0.027 seconds, while Robert Shwartzman and Guan Yu Zhou rounded out the top six.

Sacha Fenestraz was Carlin’s only representative inside the top ten, with the Renault Sport Academy star and reigning Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 champion 0.432 seconds off the ultimate pace of Palou, while Ben Hingeley, Hitech Grand Prix’s third driver in 2018, was eighth ahead of the final Prema Theodore Racing machine of Marcus Armstrong.

Sebastian Fernandez ended the day tenth fastest as he led a quintet of Motopark drivers, with his team-mates Fabio Scherer, Jonathan Aberdein, Daniel Ticktum and Juri Vips in close order, while the leading Van Amersfoort Racing machine of Artem Petrov rounded out the top fifteen, although just 0.738 seconds off the pace.

Five of the next six cars came from Carlin, with Ferdinand Habsburg sixteenth ahead of Jehan Daruvala, while Devlin DeFrancesco, Ameya Vaidyanathan and Nikita Troitskiy finished nineteenth through twenty-first, with Marino Sato of Motopark in between them in eighteenth.

As was the case on Thursday, Keyvan Andres of Van Amersfoort Racing and Julian Hanses of ma-con rounded out the field.

Hungaroring Test Day 2 Result

[table id=2826 /]

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