Christian Lundgaard took pole position for ART Grand Prix for the first race of this weekend’s round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship in Hungary.
Liam Lawson set the first representative lap time with a 1:35.058 after the first six minutes. Pedro Piquet went quicker than the Kiwi by a full second before Marcus Armstrong had clocked a 1:32.934 to go even further ahead. The PREMA Racing and ART Grand Prix drivers completed the top six positions after the first eight minutes.
With the track getting faster following yesterday’s wet weather, Armstrong continued to improve on his best time and went half a second quicker to stay top. Team-mate Robert Shwartzman almost simultaneously set an improvement on his personal best to go second before Jüri Vips in the Hitech Grand Prix took that place off him by a tenth.
At the end of the first half of the thirty-minute qualifying session, the top ten was Armstrong ahead of Vips, Shwartzman, Max Fewtrell, Raoul Hyman, Jehan Daruvala, Lundgaard, Jake Hughes, Simo Laaksonen and David Beckmann. Leonardo Pulcini who had won last time out at Silverstone was twelfth and six tenths off the pace.
As the track continued to improve, the last man over the line could potentially claim pole position so track position was crucial. Lawson on a track virtually to himself with ten minutes left moved up to seventh on a 1:32.834.
As the cars prepared for their second runs, Bent Viscaal in the HWA Racelab spun at Turn One and complained to the team about how damp it was still at the corner but the Dutchman continued on his way.
Piquet meanwhile less than four minutes remaining went quickest on a 1:31.987 before Vips topped it by tenth, followed by Niko Kari moving up to second. Christian Lundgaard was next to go top on 1:31.761.
As the chequered fell, Jake Hughes improved his position from sixteenth to seventh for HWA. However, the PREMA drivers of Armstrong and Daruvala could not pull strong laps out of the bag and will line up thirteenth and seventeenth on the grid. In contrast, championship leader Shwartzman claimed fourth spot.
The first F3 race starts later today at 15:45 (GMT+1).
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