TAPONEN TAKES FIRST FORMULA 3 POLE IN HUNGARY
Tuukka Taponen claimed his first-ever Formula 3 pole position at the Hungaroring after a very close qualifying session ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. The Ferrari Driver Academy driver delivered a strong final lap to beat championship contender Freddie Slater by just 0.040 seconds.
The result marks Taponen’s first pole in the category and ends Slater’s run of two consecutive pole positions in the last two rounds. However, the British driver can still be satisfied with the result, as he will start ahead of his main title rival Ugo Ugochukwu and will have a strong opportunity to fight for his first victory of the season.
Ugochukwu, who leads the championship, could only manage sixth place in qualifying. The American will need to recover positions during the races if he wants to maintain his advantage in the title fight, with Slater now just one point behind in the standings.
Behind the front row, Italian drivers were among the main protagonists. Mattia Colnaghi continued his strong form after an impressive weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, where he scored two fourth-place finishes. The MP Motorsport driver secured third place, only 0.024 seconds away from pole position.
Nicola Lacorte achieved his best qualifying result of the season with fourth place, improving on his previous best result of fifth position from the opening round in Melbourne. Brando Badoer completed the top five, giving the Italian driver an important starting position for Sunday’s Feature Race.
Campos Racing also had a strong qualifying session, with Théophile Naël taking seventh place and Ernesto Rivera finishing eighth. Rivera arrives in Hungary after securing his first victory of the season at Spa-Francorchamps, while Naël continues to defend third place in the championship standings.
Jin Nakamura, winner of the Spa Sprint Race, qualified ninth, followed by Gerrard Xie in tenth. Thanks to the reversed grid format, Xie will start the Sprint Race from pole position on Saturday.
The Sprint Race front row will feature Kanato Le from Japan in first place and Maciej Gladysz from Poland in second, while Gerrard Xie will complete the top three starters for the shorter race.
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