Formula 2 begin their weekend at the Hungaroring with 45 minutes of Free Practice.
The Driver’s Championship is currently led by Leonardo Fornaroli. The Italian driver is the reigning Formula 3 champion, and has a 3 point advantage over Richard Verschoor. Verschoor and Crawford failed to score any points in Spa-Francorchamps, allowing Dunne and Browning to close the gap; P1 and P5 of the championship are separated by a minuscule 12 points, so the fight is close.
Red flag
Fornaroli heads out on track, but there is an early yellow flag as Miyata comes to a stop at turn 3. The ART driver can’t get the car going and a full red flag is called. All cars head back to the pit lane.
The only drivers to set lap times before the red flag are the two AIX Racing drivers, with a 1 minute 50.1 and a 2 minute lap for Durksen and Shields.
Back to green
The session restarts with approximately 35 minutes to go, and the only drivers not on track are Beganovic, Browning, and Miyata.
Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad sets 3 purple sectors and goes fastest as Cian Shields locks up at turn 1. Shield’s teammate Durksen takes the fastest lap, but the track is ramping up and he is quickly replaced by Roman Stanek.
Dunne, Martins, Fornaroli, Verschoor, and Goethe each take their turn in P1 as the track continues to evolve. The MP Motorsport teammates sit in P1 and P2 after Goethe sets a 1:31.139.
Williams Academy driver Luke Browning begins his first lap but struggles to keep up with the pace in the early stages of his run, only managing P18. Cordeel has a double front lock up on the way into turn 1- the Belgian driver stays 2 seconds off the pace set by Goethe, which is now a 1:30.753.
Halfway mark
The session is halfway though, and no driver has managed to top the German’s time, not even Verschoor. However, Victor Martins and Dino Beganovic are able to split the MP teammates. Former Prema driver Kimi Antonelli watches from the pit lane.
Many drivers come into the pits with 12 minutes on the clock before putting in their final lap times for the Hungarian GP practice session.
Last 10 minutes
Jak Crawford struggles to put his DAMS Lucas Oil into the top 10. Kush Maini is just a few hundredths faster than Crawford, sitting 10th fastest. Lindblad has found time, making it up to P4.
Irishman Dunne is putting in a promising lap that almost takes him to top of the times, but Goethe remains undefeated with 5 minutes to go. Championship leader Fornaroli has been fighting his car this session.
Alpine junior Maini is shown a black and white flag for track limits, having dropped down the time sheets. Dunne locks up as Montoya goes wide, demonstrating the difficulty of the Hungaroring for the young drivers.
As the chequered flag is waved, Goethe is still at the top. However Browning and Dunne are looking to improve on their final laps. Dunne locks up, but the Briton goes fastest by 1 tenth at the very last moment.
Final Classification for the F2 Hungarian GP Free Practice
- L. Browning
- O. Goethe
- A. Dunne
- R. Stanek
- J. Durksen
- V. Martins
- A. Lindblad
- D. Beganovic
- R. Verschoor
- G. Mini
- J. Crawford
- L. Fornaroli
- K. Maini
- J. Marti
- A. Cordeel
- S. Meguetounif
- J. Bennet
- S. Montoya
- C. Shields
- R. Villagomez
- M. Esterson
- R. Miyata
