Qualifications – GP2: Alex Lynn ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne in Budapest

Stoffel Vandoorne’s dominance in qualifying erodes a bit more: with the pole position of the Williams protégé, the Belgian now only has a 50% success rate in the exercise since the beginning of the season. Nevertheless, if we consider his second places, he has always started from the front row of the starting grid.

He was even well on his way to securing a fourth pole this season. He had clearly dominated the free practice sessions, with a margin of four-tenths over his nearest competitor. Similarly, during the first round of qualifying attempts, the McLaren reserve driver was once again at the top of the timesheets.

Nevertheless, Alex Lynn was able to adopt the best strategy by being the first to set off for the second attempt. This proved to be rewarding as he had a clear track, which is rarely the case on the Budapest circuit. This is what allowed him to set the benchmark time. He even had the luxury of watching his opponents try to beat him from the pit wall.

Behind the two men, we find Arthur Pic, who managed to surpass Raffaele Marciello’s time in his last timed lap. Marciello is bouncing back after a challenging start to the season with his new team. The other French drivers, Pierre Gasly, Nathanael Berthon, and Norman Nato, finished 5th, 18th, and 22nd, respectively.

Alexander Rossi made the poorest move of the day as the American couldn’t do better than 11th. Nonetheless, he had shown at the Red Bull Ring that he was capable of overtaking, even on a track where it’s difficult to do so. Starting from 12th, he had finished the first race in 6th position. A similar performance will be at least necessary to prevent Stoffel Vandoorne from running away with the title.