Written by Juan Arroyo, Edited by Meghana Sree
Formula 2
PREMA Racing and ART are separated by just six points heading into the Hungaroring weekend. The title fight, headed by PREMA’s Frederik Vesti and ART’s Théo Pourchaire, has been the highlight of the season thus far. The pair is also separated by six points after eight rounds.
Silverstone was an opportunity for Sauber junior Pourchaire to reclaim lost ground to Vesti, scoring a podium in both races of a severely wet weekend in Britain. Nevertheless, the Mercedes junior secured a clear victory in the Sprint.
To add to ART’s delight, Victor Martins finally looks in tune with his machinery having taken his first Feature victory, and scoring more points on Sunday than he had in the rest of the Features combined.
Jack Doohan’s return to the podium was hard-fought and helped him yield one of his better points returns of the season. High finishes have been hard to come by for the Virtuosi driver as of late, giving the previous weekend a sense of baseline to work with for Doohan.
The same goes for Zane Maloney, whose second place at Silverstone was a best finish yet for the Barbadian. The Red Bull junior was unable to catch a fast paced Martins in the Feature race, but it meant he scored his first podium since the Monaco round.
Formula 3
Trident were the dominant force in Silverstone, opening the weekend by locking out the front row in qualifying. Leonardo Fornaroli achieved his maiden pole position and followed Oliver Goethe to a 1-2 in the Feature race.
Bortoleto had made sure all three Trident cars scored a podium the previous day in the Sprint, and a sixth place on Sunday proved helpful in extending his points lead over Jose María Martí. The Brazilian has 128 points to the Campos driver’s 92.
Martí will need to pull something magical out of his bag this weekend if he is to catch Bortoleto in the standings. While the gap isn’t insurmountable, Bortoleto’s consistency is a level above the rest of the grid’s. It’s all about maximising every opportunity for the Campos driver from here on out.
PREMA had already opened the weekend on the wrong foot in qualifying, with only Paul Aron in the top ten. Dino Beganovic scored no points starting from the back of the grid after his car broke down on Friday. As Zak O’Sullivan endured a similar fate starting from P15, Aron was left as the sole points-scorer for the Italian team with fourth place in the Feature race.
It was a win and a huge ‘what if’ for the South American drivers in the Sprint race. Leading after a Safety Car restart, Sebastian Montoya was tapped from behind by Taylor Barnard and lost multiple positions in recovering to the circuit. Franco Colapinto capitalised on the chaos, claiming his maiden win of the season in wet conditions.
As of Silverstone, the Trident lead the teams’ standings by 13 points to PREMA.
Here’s everything you need to know about this weekend’s venue:
The Hungaroring has a total circuit length of 4.381 kilometres (2.722 miles).
The circuit's design offers limited overtaking opportunities, making qualifying all the more crucial.
It is a tight, twisty layout with 14 turns, including many medium and high-speed corners.
The best overtaking opportunities come at the end of the main straight into Turn 1.When drivers are able to carry momentum without overtaking here, Turn 2 provides another opportunity shortly after.
Turn 4 is a tight uphill right-hander where overtakes are also often seen.
Ayumu Iwasa claimed F2 Pole Position in 2022, with a time of 1:27.930s.
Alexander Smolyar claimed F3 Pole Position in 2022, with a time of 1:32.740s.