Lance and Checo star in Hungaroring Qualifying

‍Lance and Checo secured P3 and P4 for Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix, while expert strategic calls from our team ensured the potential advantage of starting on the medium tyre too.

The day began with an FP3 session expected to be affected by rain, but regardless of the threat, we plugged away at finetuning our RP20.

Checo completed 16 laps and set the third-best time of 1.15.598 in the session, while Lance posted 1.16.033 to seal P5 after undertaking 15 laps.

Come Qualifying and the rain threat remained, leading to all teams rushing out to get a Q1 banker just in case.

Despite the pressure, our boys fought their way to the front in the opening minutes as Lance took an early P3 after a 1.15.757 lap and Checo slotted into P4 in 1.15.870.

Our boys had one more go of it in Q1 on the soft tyres and both were able to find further improvements – enough to top the session!

Checo surged to the front with his 1.14.681 lap as Lance followed into P2 with a 1.14.895.

Q2 was then a tense affair as we opted to make a calculated gamble of using the mediums to make it into Q3 ­– potentially opening up greater strategy variance in tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

Again our boys shot to the top of the times at first, before our soft-using rivals began to set their quicker efforts.

But Lance was able to improve on his second run on the mediums, setting a 1.15.176 time to go P7 as Checo consolidated P9 with 1.15.394.

With our Top 10 berth secured and our strategy validated, it was back to fighting at the front in Q3.

Lance headed straight out to post a 1.14.671 and take the top spot, while Checo was unlucky to see his first effort deleted.

But on his second run, Checo hooked together a strong lap to take his final spot of P4 with a 1.14.545 lap.

Lance’s improved second effort of 1.14.377 meant he held onto P3 and ensured a second-row lockout for our squad!

Lance: “I’m very happy with today’s result: the car was strong all the way through Qualifying and we’ve been performing well all weekend.

“We’ve had the pace so today was about piecing it all together in Qualifying and it was a great job by the whole team to ensure that we did.

“It was definitely a gamble to try to make it into Q3 on the medium tyres, but it proved to be the right call.

“We’re in a good position tomorrow to try and score some big points for the team.”

Checo: “Locking out the second row is a great result for everyone in the team.

“I’m happy with P4, but I felt my Qualifying could have been slightly better and that I could have had a tidier lap [in Q3].

“The important thing is that we’ve kept the momentum going this weekend and we’ve shown strong pace in every session. If we can show the same pace tomorrow, then we can target a big result.

“Being able to start the race on the medium tyre is what we wanted, so it’s great that we had the speed to make that happen. I hope it pays us back tomorrow.”

Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal: “Today’s Qualifying result is a tremendous team effort and it feels great to see our cars lockout the second row of the grid.

“We knew we had the pace in the car, but it’s satisfying to deliver that speed when it mattered during qualifying.

“I’m

“Of course, it’s only Saturday, and tomorrow is what really counts, but we’ve put ourselves in a great position to have a strong race too.”