Enzo Fittipaldi qualified on the front row at the Hungaroring, behind Hitech’s Paul Aron. After the session, Fittipaldi discussed his performance with Feeder Series, alongside other selected media at a press conference.

By Martin Lloyd

The Brazilian has endured a difficult third season in Formula 2. An early win in the Jeddah feature race was followed by four consecutive pointless rounds, with the Van Amersfoort driver ending the streak with fourth place in the Spielberg feature race. In Hungary, he took the next step with a good qualifying performance – Fittipaldi split the top two in the drivers’ standings with his lap. After qualifying, Fittipaldi told Feeder Series that the impressive result took him by surprise.

“I was definitely not expecting to be on the front row today because we’ve been really struggling in qualifying pace and finding the grip, we were a second and a half off in qualifying in Silverstone. We’ll have to learn from it and see why it worked today, and try to repeat it for the next rounds.”

Fittipaldi felt that he found pace in Austria, and told Feeder Series about his hopes for the upcoming rounds during the British GP weekend.

“One race after the other we just haven’t been able to find the pace,” he said. “In Austria we found a good combination and we were competitive in the first set in qualifying. We have something going here, I think we could carry this momentum on this weekend at Silverstone.”

Fittipaldi did score points at Silverstone, coming through the field in the feature race to finish eighth from 20^th on the grid. He has continued his improved run of form in Hungary, with a stunning lap that placed him second on the grid for Sunday’s feature race. In recent races, Fittipaldi’s race pace has been strong – qualifying has stopped him from taking his Van Amersfoort car to loftier heights. A strong feature race result could be possible, if Fittipaldi can continue with the strong Sunday speed that he has recently shown.

Behind Aron and Fittipaldi was the championship leader, Campos’ Isack Hadjar. Gabriel Bortoleto qualified fourth, with ART’s Victor Martins in fifth. Dennis Hauger was sixth ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Zane Maloney, who sits third in the drivers’ standings. Kush Maini and Richard Verschoor rounded out the top 10, with the Dutchman due to start from pole in the reverse-grid sprint race.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency