In second qualifying of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the Hungaroring, nobody was faster than Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam). As a result, the Brit will be starting tomorrow’s eleventh race of the season at the 4.381 kilometres long Formula 1 circuit near the Hungarian capital of Budapest from the best grid position.

Behind him, Joel Eriksson (Motopark) was classified second from Lando Norris (Carlin), Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam), Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix) and Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam). In the ranking of the second-fastest race laps, used to determine the starting grid positions of the third race of each race weekend, the order at the front is Eriksson from Ilott, Norris, Zhou, David Beckmann (Motopark) and Günther.

Starting grid race two

First qualifying still took place on a wet track, but the young FIA Formula 3 European Championship drivers had dry conditions for second qualifying. In the first half, Joel Eriksson (1m35.057s) was still in front, but with a little less than five minutes remaining in the 20 minutes’ session, Callum Ilott (1m34.890s) came to the fore. As Norris (1m35.063s), Zhou (1m35.262s) and Günther (1m35.324s) also went faster than the Swede at that time, he found himself only in fifth position. However, Eriksson, who lost his FIA Formula 3 European Championship points’ lead to Maximilian Günther following his tenth place in the today’s tenth race of the season, countered and moved back up to second place behind Ilott. There, he remained until the end.

Behind him, McLaren junior driver Lando Norris, currently second in the drivers’ standings, was the best-placed rookie. Ferrari protégé Guanyu Zhou posted the fourth-fastest lap time while Jake Hughes (1m35.315s), Maximilian Günther, David Beckmann (Motopark, 1m35.452s) and Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m35.465s) were classified in fifth to eighth place. The two youngsters who are backed by the Force India Formula 1 team, Jehan Daruvala (Carlin, 1m35.474s) and Nikita Mazepin (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m35.518s) rounded out the top ten.

Starting grid race three

In the ranking of the second-fastest laps for each driver, Joel Eriksson (1m35.267s) ended up in first place. Ilott (1m35.270s) was defeated by the Swede and had to make do with second place, Lando Norris (1m35.272s) was third. The lap times of this trio were only five thousandths of a second apart. Guanyu Zhou (1m35.279s) secured fourth place, 0.012 seconds down, from David Beckmann (1m35.453s), who claimed his best starting grid position of the season to date. Maximilian Günther (1m35.566s), Jake Hughes (1m35.594s), Joey Mawson (1m35.596s), Nikita Mazepin (1m35.641s) and Jehan Daruvala (1m35.700s) rounded out the top ten.