Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Championship leader Alex Ninovic set the quickest time during Friday’s GB3 free practice at the Hungaroring.
The Rodin Motorsport driver eclipsed his team-mate Gianmarco Pradel’s test-topping effort from Thursday to lead Will Macintyre by 0.1 seconds, having set his best time during the first of two sessions.
Deagen Fairclough set the early FP1 pace with a 1m40.520s before his Hitech GP stablemate Keanu Al Azhari lapped 0.9s quicker. The Alpine junior improved by a further 0.6s on his next attempt, but Pradel moved ahead by 0.1s approaching the 10-minute mark with a 1m38.933s.
Pradel remained on top for the next 12 minutes, and Al Azhari then reclaimed the advantage with a 1m38.799s only to be beaten moments later by Macintyre, the Elite Motorsport driver going fastest by just 0.023s.
Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Huezenroeder was next to head the leaderboard after lowering the pace by 0.05s, but Macintyre responded with two quickest laps in succession to lead once more with a 1m38.427s.
Al Azhari soon posted a 1m38.368s to top the timesheet for a third time, but Ninovic’s 1m38.238s lap with nine minutes remaining was good enough to seal first place when the chequered flag fell.
Having been unable to improve further, Al Azhari was demoted to third by Macintyre who ended the session 0.105s shy of Ninovic. Pradel also set a new personal best in the closing stages to be just under 0.2s away from the pace in fourth.
JHR Developments’ Noah Lisle beat Australian compatriot Heuzenroeder to fifth, the pair over a quarter of second behind the top four. Argenti with Prema’s Reza Seewooruthun was seventh, while Fairclough slipped back to eighth.
Pradel was one of only five drivers to set a new personal best in FP2, and he led a Rodin one-two ahead of Ninovic with a 1m38.350s which moved him ahead of Al Azhari into third in the day’s combined classification.
As well as Ninovic, Macintyre did not improve on his FP1 time but remained second overall. Fairclough bettered his mornng effort to take third in FP2 and climbed to fifth overall ahead of Lisle and Heuzenroeder.
Seewooruthun, Velocity Racing’s Hugo Schwarze and Rodin’s Abbi Pulling completed the top 10.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Ninovic | Rodin Motorsport | 1m38.238s | 40 | |
| 2 | Will Macintyre | Elite Motorsport | 1m38.343s | +0.105s | 37 |
| 3 | Gianmarco Pradel | Rodin Motorsport | 1m38.350s | +0.112s | 41 |
| 4 | Keanu Al Azhari | Hitech | 1m38.368s | +0.130s | 43 |
| 5 | Deagen Fairclough | Hitech | 1m38.542s | +0.304s | 44 |
| 6 | Noah Lisle | JHR Developments | 1m38.678s | +0.440s | 39 |
| 7 | Patrick Heuzenroeder | Xcel Motorsport | 1m38.716s | +0.478s | 42 |
| 8 | Reza Seewooruthun | Argenti w/ Prema | 1m38.862s | +0.624s | 39 |
| 9 | Hugo Schwarze | VRD | 1m38.903s | +0.665s | 37 |
| 10 | Abbi Pulling | Rodin Motorsport | 1m39.084s | +0.846s | 42 |
| 11 | Flynn Jackes | Elite Motorsport | 1m39.318s | +1.080s | 40 |
| 12 | Jack Sherwood | Xcel Motorsport | 1m39.333s | +1.095s | 42 |
| 13 | Yuanpu Cui | Argenti w/ Prema | 1m39.473s | +1.235s | 31 |
| 14 | Kai Daryanani | JHR Developments | 1m39.504s | +1.266s | 36 |
| 15 | Lucas Fluxa | Argenti w/ Prema | 1m39.534s | +1.296s | 19 |
| 16 | Bianca Bustamante | Elite Motorsport | 1m40.198s | +1.960s | 36 |