Thursday at Hungaroring: track preview and results
Thursday at Hungaroring was dedicated to private FR 2.0 tests. Our material contains track preview and the first day statistics.
Robert Shwartzman (R-ace GP) with his 3 wins runs this championship in 2nd place coming to the Hungarian circuit. He has some pleasant memories of scoring his first-ever Formula Renault podium here back in NEC 2016. The SMP Racing driver takes us to the track walk through the corners which saw Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat and Stoffel Vandoorne victorious here in FR 2.0 in previous years.
T1
Heavy braking zone, we get on the brakes at the 100m board. This is one of the only overtaking opportunities on this track.
T2
A long downhill corner. Braking is with G-force so it is easy to lock up a wheel here. Quite often there is understeer at the exit. Exit speed is important for the straight after.
T4-5
T4 is quite a fast corner in 5th gear. We have to stay off the inside curb. Turn 5 comes very quickly so we don’t have time to put the wheel straight at the exit.
T6-7
A slow hairpin. On new tyres we can run flat through the second apex.
T8-9
A fast left-right complex in 4th gear. We can’t exit too wide from Turn 8 to open the line for Turn 9.
T11
Another fast corner. The straight after is long, so we need to find the right compromise and keep a good exit speed.
T12
Another heavy braking zone. We can use the inside curb.
T13-14
Two long low speed corners in 3rd gear. Important to carry good speed in and out as the start finish straight is where we can gain position.
Another serious competitor is Sacha Fenestraz (Josef Kaufmann Racing). The Frenchman will do his best to score some valuable points and maybe get close to the championship leaders in case of points as his team is traditionally strong at Hungaroring. Sacha was fastest on Thursday with the lap of 1:41.256.
Thursday tests results – three sessions, potential ideal lap sheet and a pace comparison over a potential lap which is an average time of the top-3 drivers ideal times.
Thursday June 29 2017
11:35 – 18:35 Private testing
Friday June 30 2017
11:30 – 12:20 Collective test 1
16:00 – 16:50 Collective test 2
Saturday July 1 2017
8:30 – 8:45 Qualifying 1 (Group A)
8:50 – 9:05 Qualifying 1 (Group B)
13:00 – 13:15 Qualifying 2 (Group B)
13:20 – 13:35 Qualifying 2 (Group A)
18:00 – 18:30 Race 1
Sunday July 2 2017
10:10 – 10:40 Race 2
15:45 – 16:15 Race 3
Interviews from: Renault Sport
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