Practice
Freddie Slater ended the Budapest Free Practice at the top of the timesheets with a 1:33.947.
The Trident driver led the way by over a tenth from Bando Badoer, with his Rodin Motorsport teammate just behind in third.
Woohyun Shin was the first driver out on track in the early stages. He completed a 1:36.471 but that time was deleted after he exceeded track limits at Turn 9.
10 minutes into the session and the rest of the field – apart from the three Rodin Motorsport cars – made their way out of the pitlane.
Ugo Ugochukwu set the pace with a 1:34.798 eclipsing title rival Slater in P2 by just 0.052s.
With 26 minutes left, Rodin released their drivers out on track, while Matteo De Palo returned to the pitlane with damage after going off at the exit of Turn 7.
Moments later, Salim Hanna found the barrier at Turn 5 bringing out the Red Flags.
The session resumed with 12 minutes to go and once again Ugochukwu led the way with a 1:34.522, with Slater in P2, 0.180s behind.
On his next lap, Hitech’s Jin Nakamura took over at the top with a 1:34.360.
However, Slater went back to P1 with a 1:33.947, eclipsing Rodin’s Brando Bardoer time by 0.135s.
It was not all good news for Trident however, as Noah Stromsted stopped on the run to Turn 12, bringing out the Red Flags.
That brought the session to a close with Slater on top for a fourth consecutive practice session, ahead of Badoer and Pedro Clerot.
Qualifying
Tuukka Taponen left it late to take his first ever Aramco Pole Position Awards, sealing top spot with a 1:33.411.
The MP Motorsport driver left it until the final lap of the day to take the top time by 0.042s over Slater, with teammate Mattia Colnaghi rounding out the top three – 0.072s away from Taponen.
There was a mixture of strategies to start the session, with PREMA Racing, ART Grand Prix , DAMS Lucas Oil and Hitech all sending their drivers out later than the rest.
But after the first set of times it was Theophile Nael on top after a 1:33.533, with Taponen his closest challenger 0.019s behind in second.
In the battle between the top two drivers in the championship, Slater was seventh, while Ugo Ugochukwu was ninth after a huge lock up at Turn 1.
The drivers returned to the track with 18 minutes to go on new Medium tyres.
Slater then went quickest on a 1:33.451 with Nicola Lacorte just behind him in second, 0.064s behind, ahead of Brando Badoer in third. Critically in the title fight, Ugochukwu wad down in P12.
The drivers returned to the pitlane to strap on another set of Mediums for their final laps of the day.
On this occasion, Slater could not improve as Colnaghi went up to second, 0.024s off the top time.
The Trident driver looked set for pole until Taponen snatched P1 with a 1:33.411, eclipsing Slater by just 0.040s.
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