Top ten starts for Blomqvist and Giovinazzi in Hungary
It was a mixed second qualifying for the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team this afternoon ahead of the second and third races of the FIA Formula Three European Championship weekend in Hungry. Following on from his earlier victory Tom Blomqvist had another strong session in which he set the sixth fastest time, where he will start the opening race tomorrow morning, with Antonio Giovinazzi lining up just behind him in seventh. However it was a different affair for Sean Gelael who qualified in 19th overall after finding his session disrupted by traffic – the Indonesian will be looking to replicate his race one success and drive to the points tomorrow.
Despite an intended start of 15.25, local time, the previous Maserati Trofeo race had left the barriers in a state of disrepair giving the marshals a lot of work to do before the Formula Three cars could take to the circuit. In the end, this delay was just over 30 minutes giving the team a long opportunity in the pit lane to discuss the upcoming session with the drivers.
When the pit lane was opened and the cars allowed on track it was, in similar style to yesterday’s qualifying, a few minutes before the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin drivers took to the circuit – and further minutes after that before the flying laps began.
Giovinazzi was an early mover and placed his car in the top five with his opening flying lap before Blomqvist bettered his attempt and moved up to second overall. The fighting at the top of the time sheets became more intense over the next few minutes and positions changed dramatically before a lull in proceedings occurred with about five minutes of the session remaining. By this point, Gelael had moved up to 15th position overall as he built up his speed around the Hungaroring.
In the final few minutes Blomqvist, who had fallen down to tenth overall, moved back up fifth position however would end the 20 minutes of competitive on-track action in sixth overall. Reflecting on his qualifying he said, ‘It was a bit of a messy session for everyone I think, track position was very difficult and the conditions on track were different to the rest of the weekend so far. We’re still in a good position and aim to make a good start tomorrow and take it from there.’
Meanwhile Giovinazzi had been holding his top ten position for the majority of the second half of the session and will line up just behind his team mate in his Volkswagen powered Dallara in seventh. Giovinazzi said, ‘It was an ok session for me, the gap to Tom is close so that is good. I feel as though the car is nice to drive and we will try to make a good start like I know we can and see what happens in the race.’
Gelael meanwhile was unlucky to drop down to 19th during the final stages; the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin man had encountered a lot of traffic and will be keen to drive to the points in a similar fashion to the opening race of the weekend. He added, ‘It wasn’t a great qualifying session for me because I seemed to come across a lot of traffic and although I developed a good rhythm towards the end I wasn’t able to get the most out of it. I’m disappointed however we’ll now sit down together and decide what we’re going to do tomorrow – we’ll do our best to optimise where we are.’
Race two will get underway tomorrow morning at 10.50 local time in Budapest, Hungary.
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