Liam Lawson struck a number of misfortunes at FIA Formula 3 Round 3 at Hungaroring this weekend taking early retirement in Race 1 when rear end of race car caught fire followed by a mechanical issue in Race 2 which left the HiTech Grand Prix driver out of the points.
Fellow Kiwi Marcus Armstrong encountered unfortunate DNF in Race 1 when trying to avoid race incident with fellow Team-driver consequence was damage to front of race car forcing early retirement. Race 2 faired better for the ART Grand Prix driver coming from 19th on the grid to finish inside top 10.
With mix of wet and dry track, Lawson made quick work of gaining nice 4th position by Lap 1 in Race 1, as report by Red Bull Junior Team release states:
‘A fabulous start in the damp Race 1 saw Lawson charge from 11th to 4th in the first couple of corners. The Hitech driver settled in with eyes on at least a podium only to have his engine expire in dramatic fashion on lap 5’.
“What can you say, at the end of the day I can just be happy that I did everything that I could in both races and the technical problems are outside of my control”.
“Looking at the performance overall, I’m not happy with Quali, we missed the boat there in the wet. We had good pace in the first run and then changed something for the second and it just didn’t go well at all. Basically I could not turn the tyre on so I couldn’t improve my lap time even though the track was faster, so that was disappointing.”
“Race 1, I got a really good start, tried to push for the front as much as I could and then…. lit up the track completely with fire as the engine let go in the biggest way. Then today, again, another really good start to the race and pushed through to P12, P11 or something and then… another engine failure.”’.
“We need to find out what’s happened because I’m not sure yet. They are looking into it but it is obviously very disappointing, they were two races where we could have got a lot of points. Even in the second race, coming from the back we could have got a good load of points”‘.
Marcus Armstrong experienced more learning curves racing Pirelli’s medium tyres, with only 2 drivers opting to stay out entire race with no tyre change. The risk paid off for winner Luca Ghiotto – confirming race strategies, tyre management and a touch of luck goes a long way in most competitive F2 Championship.
The Ferrari Academy driver along with Lawson racing under Red Bull Junior Team now have gap week before heading to Round 4 and 5 at Silverstone, UK on July 31st- August 2nd.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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