Prema Powerteam went continued in their phenomenal qualifying form in the second round of the FIA F.3 European Championship at Hungaroing, adding three more pole positions to the three scored in the 2016 opener at Le Castellet and continuing in their stunning perfect score.

Maximilian Gunther was the star of the day in Hungary, delivering an hat-trick that brings his total pole count to five so far. In addition, the Italian squad managed by Angelo and René Rosin got a really rewarding surprise from rookie Ralf Aron.

The young Estonian scored third place in qualifying 1 before improving in the second session to grab a place on the front row. Lance Stroll captured a second row spot for race 1 before suffering from tire management issues in the second session. Championship leader Nick Cassidy also had to deal with tire woes and was prevented from showing his full potential on-track.

# 1 - Lance Stroll

“The first qualifying session went well. Fourth place means I will be starting from the second row with a chance to fight for a podium finish. The second session wasn’t quite perfect, so we have to investigate what went wrong on the car”.

# 2 - Nick Cassidy

“I’m not particularly satisfied with how the day went. I faced tire issues that prevented me from fighting for the first positions. The race will be another story though and I will try to collect as many points as possible in order to retain the championship lead”.

# 16 - Ralf Aron

“In Q1 we had to be very careful in respecting the track limits. Unfortunately I had to be really cautious in keeping the car on-track so I made some mistakes and had to abort an attempt. In my fastest lap I thought I had made a small mistake so I slowed down to prepare for another flyer. I didn’t push as hard as I could in the last sector and lost a couple of tenths that eventually cost me the pole. In Q2 I had started well, I was in an ideal position but three of the cars I had in front slowed down abruptly. Plus, I faced lots of traffic in the final lap. As I had to overtake them, I couldn’t set a good second mark, so I will have to start race 3 a little farther away”.

# 17 - Maximilian Gunther

“It’s been a sensational Friday. Scoring three pole positions feels incredible and I couldn’t thank the team enough for having allowed me to get this result. In qualifying 1 I was actually second, but Russell got his fastest time deleted and that made me move to first place. We had managed the session well anyway, and the same goes for qualifying 2. The tires worked well, the set-up was perfect and it all came together without any struggle. I’m enjoying this moment and it’s a great feeling thinking that I will lead the pack in all three races”.

Canadians In BOLD