AVF enjoyed a positive Friday of hard work in Budapest, where the renowned Hungaroring is the stage for the seventh round of the F.Renault 3.5 championship. On one of the most technical venues of the F1 calendar, the Spanish team made the most of the two Free Practice session to work on the cars’ set-up and gather useful data for tomorrow’s Qualifying and Race 1. In the morning Arthur Pic closed the Free Practice 1 in the top ten (7th place) lapping roughly on the same pace of the front runners, while Yann Cunha took some time to get acquainted with the Hungarian track and ended in P24. In the afternoon’s session the team and Pic chose to focus race-trim performance, hence posting a laptime just shy of the top ten, while Cunha improved his morning performance by one full second, showing an impressive progression that bodes well for tomorrow. Saturday will host the first race of the weekend, at 2.15 PM, preceeded by the first Qualifying session scheduled for 8.50 AM.
Arthur Pic: FP1 – P7; FP2 – P11 “It was quite a strange day, because the track felt very different between the two sessions. In the morning, with low tarmac temperatures, some set-up solutions were working well, while in the afternoon something different was needed in order to be quick. That’s why some teams were fast this morning and nowhere in FP2, while we were pretty steady in our performance. We believe that we have some very good ideas for tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to qualifying”. Yann Cunha: FP1 – P24; FP2 – P22 “It was a really busy day, especially in the morning with a lot of set-up work. I made the most of FP1 to get a good feeling with the track, and then in the second session I pushed harder. The car felt good, but I flat-spotted under bracking with my first set of tyres, and so I had to fit new rubber too early to post a competitive time. It’s a pity, but the pace is definitely there so for tomorrow’s qualifying I’m confident that a mid-pack performance is very possible”.
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