Noel Leon puts it on pole in Euroformula’s Hungaroring qualifying

Photo: Fotospeedy

Euroformula points leader Noel Leon claimed pole position in qualifying at the Hungaroring.

NV Racing’s Paolo Brajnik was fastest at first in the 20-minute session, lapping in the 1m41s.

Home hero Benjamin Berta brought the pace pace down to 1m36.506s six minutes into the session, then Motopark’s Cian Shields bettered him by just under two tenth of a second.

The next name to the top was Bryce Aron, who set a 1m35.799s, but it was short-lived as points Leon then put in a 1m35.616s to lead a top-six lockout of Motopark-run cars.

He improved to 1m35.722s to go into the final 10 minutes on top, with Josh Mason 0.062 seconds behind.

BVM Racing’s Francesco Simonazzi and Noda Racing’s Juju Noda did not even set a representative laptime until the final nine minutes, and their first efforts put them first and third respectively.

Simonazzi set a 1m35.708s to go top, then two minutes later Noda moved ahead with a 1m35.378s. An improvement from Simonazzi put him just 0.001s behind, as Brajnik’s fastest lap was deleted.

Drivers pitted for new tyres before embarking on their second runs, and there was a close moment between Simonazzi and Noda on track while they were still on their first run.

The action ramped up again in the final two minutes, with Berta the first to post an improvement as he went sixth fastest. Aon then improved in fourth, before Jakob Bergmesiter went third fastest with a 1m35.605s.

Leon moved into that position just a few seconds before the chequered flag was waved by setting a 1m35.548s, but straight after Shields set a 1m35.437s to take the position. That laptime was then deleted, dropping him to eighth, but there was still time for one more lap from him and everyone else.

Noda was displaced from the top by a 1m35.315s lap from Simonazzi, then shuffled down to third as Mason went 0.001s faster than her.

Leon and Shields timed it best to cross the line as late as possible, with Leon setting a 1m34.797s to briefly go fastest by over half a second before Shields finished his lap and got within 0.418s of the poleman.

The top seven were covered by 0.939s, with Effective Racing’s Vladimir Netusil having his fastest lap deleted at the very end but it not impacting his ninth place.

Qualifying results