Photo: Auto GP
Vittorio Ghirelli scored his first pole-position in Auto GP at the Hungaroring.
The 18-year old FR 3.5 refugee has shown impressive pace so far this season with a fastest lap in Marrakech last month but this was by far his most dominant performance yet, winning pole by going over half a second faster than the second-placed debutant Tamas Pal Kiss.
The performance didn’t come as a shock since he set the fastest time in all the practice sessions on Saturday. Championship leader Kimiya Sato will start third having never driven on this track before, with Riccardo Agostini alongside, highes-placed of the Manor MP drivers.
The reigning Italian F3 champion forms a buffer between Sato and his main championship challenger Sergio Campana starting from fifth. The second of the Manor MP drivers, Meindert Van Buuren, starts sixth.
Narain Karthikeyan could only manage seventh, and Daniel De Jong‘s eighth ensures that the three Manor MPs start in a line. Ninth and tenth were Robert Visoiu and Luciano Bacheta who both had issues in qualifying. Yoshitaka Kuroda lines up 11th followed by 12th placed man Maxim Snegirev who narrowly edged his Virtuosi UK teammate Andrea Roda into 13th by 0.118s. Joining Roda on the seventh row is series returnee Francesco Dracone, as the last row is filled by two team owners, Giusseppe Cipriani of Ibiza and Michele La Rosa of MLR71.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Vittorio Ghirelli | Super Nova | 1:32.589 | 14 | |
| 2 | Tamas Pal Kiss | MLR 71 | 1:33.177 | +0.588 | 14 |
| 3 | Kimiya Sato | Euronova | 1:33.263 | +0.674 | 13 |
| 4 | Ricardo Agostini | Manor MP | 1:33.730 | +1.141 | 14 |
| 5 | Sergio Campana | Ibiza | 1:33.926 | +1.337 | 13 |
| 6 | Meindert Van Buuren | Manor MP | 1:34.019 | +1.430 | 14 |
| 7 | Narain Karthikeyan | Zele | 1:34.100 | +1.511 | 14 |
| 8 | Daniel De Jong | Manor MP | 1:34.273 | +1.684 | 15 |
| 9 | Robert Visoiu | Ghinzani | 1:34.336 | +1.747 | 15 |
| 10 | Luciano Bacheta | Zele | 1:34.674 | +2.085 | 13 |
| 11 | Yoshitaka Kuroda | Euronova | 1:34.817 | +2.228 | 13 |
| 12 | Maxim Snegirev | Virtuosi UK | 1:35.089 | +2.500 | 15 |
| 13 | Andrea Roda | Virtuosi UK | 1:35.207 | +2.618 | 14 |
| 14 | Francesco Dracone | Super Nova | 1:35.963 | +3.374 | 15 |
| 15 | Giusseppe Cipriani | Ibiza | 1:36.062 | +3.473 | 15 |
| 16 | Michele La Rosa | MLR 71 | 1:42.735 | +11.146 | 4 |