PREMA Racing’s Frederik Vesti achieved third place in Friday’s qualifying session at the Hungaroring, a “much needed” result for the Mercedes junior following his Feature race results in the previous round at Silverstone.
Vesti momentarily held pole position in the closing stages of the session with a 1:27.767 before ART’s Victor Martins and eventual polesitter Jack Doohan demoted the Danish driver to P3.
“We ended up P3 today after leading for much part of qualifying, but in the final lap, we didn’t quite have what we needed to do the pole. It’s still a very good result and a really strong day.
“We made a great step forward compared to Silverstone, and I’m really happy with how the team reacted. A result like this was very much needed after Sunday in Silverstone.”
Having qualified 10th at Silverstone, Vesti retired with suspension damage on lap 11 of Sunday’s race following a rear collision from Dennis Hauger. The tap from behind sent his car into the path of Roman Stan?k, who also retired from the resulting damage.
“It’s good to bounce back like this, and be at the front of the field all day. Now we switch the focus to the races, usually where the points are, so let’s go for that!”
Vesti will start eighth in Saturday’s Sprint race and third in Sunday’s Feature race.
The Mercedes junior has enjoyed strong form throughout the season, leading the championship from Théo Pourchaire nine rounds in. Vesti will look to continue his streak of five rounds with a podium in a row—the longest active one on the grid—this weekend in an effort to stay ahead of Pourchaire, who lies just six points behind in the drivers’ standings.
Image: Formula Motorsport Limited
