PREMA Racing’s Zak O’Sullivan claimed the top spot with a 1:32.701 in Budapest ahead of MP Motorsport’s Mari Boya and teammate Paul Aron.
The session started with only six drivers initially venturing onto the track. It was Oliver Gray who set the early pace with a respectable time of 1:34.712. However, the rest of the grid soon joined in, with Hitech’s Luke Browning putting on an impressive performance to snatch the lead from the Trident driver with a 1:33.726.
As the clock ticked down and with 25 minutes left, the excitement escalated as all 30 drivers decided to go out together to maximize the 35-minute session.
In a stunning display of team strength, PREMA Racing quickly claimed the top three spots, with Zak O’Sullivan bursting into the lead with a blistering lap time of 1:32.701. Mari Boya showed his pace to secure the second spot, trailing the Briton by a mere 0.3 seconds as Jose Maria Mari rounded off the top three.
As the session entered its final phase, teams focused on testing the new Pirelli medium tires. With less than 10 minutes remaining, the lap counts continued to rise, and drivers faced the challenge of managing tire degradation and graining effectively.
The session ended prematurely as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez suffered a crash between Turn 11 and 12, which brought the red flag. Ultimately, Zak O’Sullivan proved to be the fastest driver of the session as Mari Boya followed closely in second, as his teammate Paul Aron secured third.
Campos Racing’s Juan Maria Marti made a commendable effort to claim fourth as Dino Beganovic placed the last PREMA Racing car in fifth. Despite his late-session crash, Rafael Villagomez managed to secure sixth place for VAR as Trident’s Oliver Goethe and ART’s Gregoire Saucy took seventh and eighth positions, respectively.
Lastly, MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto and Hitech’s Luke Browning concluded the top ten.
Stay tuned for Qualifying, scheduled at 15:05 local time.
