F3: O’Sullivan and PREMA dominate wet-to-dry Budapest qualifying

Williams junior Zak O’Sullivan ran the show in FIA Formula 3 qualifying in Hungary, as he helped secure his and PREMA Racing’s first pole position of the season. Rain ahead of the session left the Hungaroring slippery, but with a drying line the Briton bolted on the softs and went from strength to strength to take pole by four tenths.

Team mate Dino Beganovic helped achieve a front row lockout for the Italian team, whilst Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli earned himself a top-three spot.

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Caio Collet was the first driver to set a time on the slicks before the red flag appeared eight minutes in, after Oliver Gray hit the barriers out of Turn 2.

Once the session resumed, several drivers traded turns at the top, with Oliver Goethe, Mari Boya, Fornaroli and championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto all going fastest early on.

Having set the pace in practice, O’Sullivan then hit the front momentarily before being demoted by Josep Maria Marti by just 0.006s at the halfway mark.

With times chopping and changing, O’Sullivan responded with three personal best sectors, clocking a 1m 31.091s with four minutes to go. Beganovic and Fornaroli hopped up into the top three but couldn’t touch O’Sullivan’s effort.

Franco Colapinto secure fourth ahead of Goethe, Paul Aron, Nikola Tsolov, Jonny Edgar, Bortoleto, Christian Mansell and Jenzer Motorsport’s Nikita Bedrin.

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After qualifying in 12th, Gabriele Mini lines up on reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race, which starts at 0950 local time.

For a full in-depth report of the FIA Formula 3 qualifying session, visit the official F3 website.