Edward Pearson endured a challenging weekend on track as his GB3 Championship powered by the BRDC season continued at the Hungaroring.
The Fortec Motorsport driver was competing at the circuit - located less than half an hour from Budapest - for the first time, with the event also being the first time that the GB3 had raced at the home of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
That gave added importance to the pre-event test, with Edward kicking off on-track running on Thursday with the fifth best time in the first session of the week. Although he would end the day 18th on the combined times, he improved his lap time by half a second during the afternoon with confidence high ahead of free practice.
Improving his time during the first of two sessions on Friday, Edward would go into the weekend looking to try and replicate the results he had scored earlier in the month at Spa during his first overseas outing of the year.
Qualifying would prove to be a challenge for Edward, who was unable to replicate his practice pace to end up 20th on the timesheets and on row ten for the opening race.
Although he made up a spot on the long run down to turn one, Edward was then run wide at turn two and dropped back to 21st place and would spend most of the race fixed onto the rear of the car of rival Aditya Kulkarni before taking the flag in 20th spot.
Starting from 19th for race two, Edward this time lost a place off the line and was lucky to avoid an incident mid-way through lap one when he put a wheel off track whilst trying to make up ground.
Once into his groove however, Edward was able to display improved pace as he worked his way to 17th by the finish, setting a best lap that was nearly half a second quicker than in race one.
The post-race exclusion of one of his rivals moved Edward up to 16th in the results ahead of race three, where Edward would once again line up in P20 on the grid.
An astonishing start saw Edward rocket up the order, with a number of impressive overtakes allowing him to end lap one in twelfth spot. Although he would be overhauled by Nikita Johnson on lap five, Edward showed that he had the pace to run higher up the order and a mature drive saw him hold Kulkarni at bay to end the weekend with a 13th place finish.
Edward now sits 16th in the standings ahead of the trip to the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands next month.
“The weekend started really well with the pace we showed in practice, but for some reason, we struggled to get the car dialled in when it came to qualifying which made it an uphill battle for the races,” he said.
“After the results at Spa, I was hoping for more from the Hungaroring and after two difficult races, we ended the weekend with a strong result in race three. That was closer to where I wanted to be and means we ended on a positive note, so the focus now turns to Zandvoort and trying to get forwards towards the top ten.”
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