UGOCHUKWU IMPROVES AT HUNGARORING
Another weekend of unpredictable weather conditions comes to a close at the Hungaroring, where Round number 4 of the Formula Regional Championship by Alpine was hosted.
Ugo Ugochukwu and Team Prema set up their machines on Friday, aiming to get the best possible performance out of the two Collective Testing sessions. Despite the dry conditions on track, the young American seemed to struggle during the session, which he concluded in a P17.
Determined to figure out what was hindering his performance and improve his times, the Prema driver went out once again in the second session of collective testing, pushing to place his fully papaya-livered #3 car higher in the rankings: He was eventually rewarded with a 5-place improvement and took a P12 finish.
Saturday morning was marked by heavy thunderstorms hitting the Hungarian track, causing the start of the first Qualifying session to be delayed. The first session of qualifying was eventually opened and the Prema driver went out with his qualifying group to fight for the best starting position for Race 1, programmed in the afternoon. After an interesting session, Ugo crossed the line to take home a P5, earning a Top 10 start for the main event of the day.
Race 1 was run on dried tarmac, allowing for tires to warm up properly and therefore generate more grip. Starting the race in tenth position, the young McLaren junior had his eyes set on the front of the field, aiming to make up as many positions as possible. A solid plan that did not unfortunately become reality, as only a few drivers in the field seems to be able to make their way forward and move up the rankings. Ugochukwu still managed to bring home the P10 he started the day from, making of the first race a good starting point for the weekend.
The second qualifying session of the weekend was a very positive one for the 17-year-old, who went out in confidence and showed a dominating pace. He was in fact leading the standing for a big part of the session, but was unfortunately assigned P2 as Brazilian teammate Camara clocked the fastest time in his last flying lap of the session.
Thanks to the solid performance achieved in the second qualifying session, Ugo started the last race of the weekend from the second row, being assigned a P4 overall in the morning. An eventful race saw him place a brilliant overtake to climb up to a podium positioned, which was although taken away from him from an ambitious Camara, who eventually got assigned a penalty and got demoted to P4, while Ugochukwu claimed a well-deserved P3.
A challenging weekend in Hungaroring for Ugo Ugochukwu, rewarded with another trophy to add to the many which this young talent will be able to collect in his quick ascent to the senior series of motorsports. Check out this weekend’s videos, and make sure not to miss the next round in Mugello, between July 12-14th !
