Budapest, Qualifying: stunning pole for Filippi

Luca Filippi

After laying low a bit in yesterday's second Free Practice session choosing not to use new tires, Luca Filippi broke cover in today's qualifying: the SuperNova driver took pole position with an impressive 1'33"374, 6 tenths quicker than anybody else.

Second placed was Kevin Ceccon, the Italian being the best Under 21 driver and the only one together with Filippi to break the 1'34 mark. Furthermore, Ceccon was the only driver in the top pack to post his ideal time, so making the most of his potential. Doing so he managed to keep Fabio Onidi at bay, the Lazarus driver finishing 3rd just 0.020 adrift. Fourth was Giovanni Venturini with the Griffitz Durango car, with 1'34"106.

Third row of today's Race 1 will see an improved Marco Barba starting 5th and happy about a setup that now suits his driving style more, especially under braking. Barba will start ahead of Tambay, who had a better potential but had to back off in his best lap due to slower drivers on the racing line.

Behind them was a mixed duo, with a rookie and a veteran: Samuele Buttarelli with the TP Formula car was 7th, just 0.002 ahead of Fabrizio Crestani. The all Italian pair was 3 tenths quicker than Rio Haryanto, who suffered a spin in the early minutes of qualifying, and Bruno Mendez, closing the top ten with 1'34"817.

Luca Filippi: "I wasn't expecting such a gap, but the situation was perfect today. The car is really good, and Budapest has become one of my favorite tracks. At the start of my career I was really slow here, but as I often do I started working a lot to solve my issues with the layout, and now it's one of my strong points. In the race the start will be the most important moment for me".

Kevin Ceccon: "I'm really happy about my performance, even if Luca is playing its own game. I think that in the race it will be difficult to challenge him for the win, my only chance is jumping ahead at the start. Anyway qualifying was really good, I have to say that I like the track a lot".

Fabio Onidi: "Third position is not bad at all, but I dropped something with some little mistakes here and there. Filippi was too far anyway, but I could have started from second row. Anyway my starts are usually good, so we'll see in the race, I'm pretty confident".

Budapest, 4 June, Qualifying

1 Luca FILIPPI Supernova Racing 1:33.374
2 Kevin CECCON Ombra Racing 1:33.996
3 Fabio ONIDI Lazarus 1:34.017
4 Giovanni VENTURINI Griffitz Durango 1:34.106
5 Marco BARBA Campos Racing 1:34.221
6 Adrien TAMBAY Gravity – Charouz Dams 1:34.295
7 Samuele BUTTARELLI TP Formula 1:34.385
8 Fabrizio CRESTANI Lazarus 1:34.387
9 Rio HARYANTO Dams 1:34.744
10 Bruno MENDEZ Campos Racing 1:34.817
11 Sergei AFANASIEV Dams 1:34.899
12 Stefano BIZZARRI Ombra Racing 1:35.206
13 Pasquale DI SABATINO TP Formula 1:35.305
14 Rodolfo GONZALEZ Campos Racing 1:35.591
15 Giuseppe CIPRIANI Griffitz Durango 1:36.467
16 Francesco DRACONE Francesco Dracone 1:37.642