Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Luke Browning left it late to top Formula 2 practice at the Hungaroring, bettering long-time pacesetter Oliver Goethe.
Running was interrupted early on as red flags waved five minutes in due to ART Grand Prix’s Ritomo Miyata stopping at the exit of turn one with a mechanical issue.
After a five-minute stoppage, running resumed and Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek set the early pace with a 1m32.528s lap.
Laptimes began to rapidly improve, with the positions at the top of the timesheet alternating between several drivers.
A 1m32.206s put Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne into first place, before ART GP’s Victor Martins and then Invicta’s Leonardo Fornaroli went quicker.
MP Motorsport appeared the team to beat though, as Richard Verschoor moved ahead after setting a 1m31.176s and team-mate Oliver Goethe then went 0.037 seconds faster.
The newly resurfaced turn one caught many drivers out. Rodin’s Amaury Cordeel locked up entering the corner on two consecutive fast runs, and Dunne and Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett were also caught out by the lack of grip.
There were few improvements in the middle of the 45-minute session, with Goethe one of the exceptions as he set a 1m30.753s to move over 0.3s clear at the top.
Martins and Hitech GP’s Dino Beganovic split the MP drivers with 10 minutes to go, with Goethe maintaining an advantage of 0.2s as he improved again to 1m30.742s.
Stanek and Dunne both tasted second place before Hitech’s Browning posted a 1m30.873s to cement his place as Goethe’s closest rival.
Prema’s Gabriele Mini then looked set to take top spot, but a mistake into turn six meant he could not improve and remained in ninth place.
As the chequered flag fell, new fastest sector one splits were set by Browning and then Dunne. When Browning met the start-finish line, he had completed the lap in 1m30.609s and that put him 0.133s ahead of non-improver Goethe at the top.
Dunne looked set to go even faster but a mistake into turn 12 meant he remained third, 0.302s behind. Stanek claimed fourth, and AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen was fifth fastest. Less than half a second covered the top 10, which Fornaroli was outside of.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | 1m30.609s | 15 | |
| 2 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 1m30.742s | +0.133s | 17 |
| 3 | Alex Dunne | Rodin Motorsport | 1m30.911s | +0.302s | 20 |
| 4 | Roman Stanek | Invicta Racing | 1m30.918s | +0.309s | 19 |
| 5 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | 1m30.976s | +0.367s | 18 |
| 6 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 1m30.994s | +0.385s | 18 |
| 7 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos Racing | 1m30.997s | +0.388s | 19 |
| 8 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | 1m31.014s | +0.405s | 15 |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 1m31.044s | +0.435s | 17 |
| 10 | Gabriele Mini | Prema | 1m31.062s | +0.453s | 16 |
| 11 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 1m31.207s | +0.598s | 18 |
| 12 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta Racing | 1m31.344s | +0.735s | 18 |
| 13 | Kush Maini | DAMS | 1m31.374s | +0.765s | 19 |
| 14 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | 1m31.409s | +0.800s | 19 |
| 15 | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin Motorsport | 1m31.410s | +0.801s | 19 |
| 16 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | 1m31.489s | +0.880s | 17 |
| 17 | John Bennett | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m31.502s | +0.893s | 19 |
| 18 | Sebastian Montoya | Prema | 1m31.572s | +0.963s | 17 |
| 19 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 1m31.593s | +0.984s | 16 |
| 20 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m31.707s | +1.098s | 19 |
| 21 | Max Esterson | Trident | 1m31.715s | +1.106s | 17 |
| 22 | Ritomo Miyata | ART Grand Prix | no time | 1 |