A demanding weekend for ORT in Hungary

With 20 drivers all within one second, qualifying at the Hungarian round of the GP2 Main Series Championship was the most competitive of the season so far.

Ocean Racing Technology showed a good pace but its drivers, Fabio Leimer and Max Chilton, were unable to get a clean lap on the tight and twisty Hungaroring circuit. When they did succeed in getting out of the traffic, their tyres were too worn to even hope for a top 10 grid position.

Despite everything, Fabio Leimer was just 85 hundredths off pole position time, but the Swiss racer only recorded the 18th best time of the qualifying session, which underlines the extreme competitiveness of the GP2 Main Series.

In the race itself, the twisty track was true to its reputation by not allowing any overtaking manoeuvres, but sector times from the Ocean Racing Technology duo showed that they had the potential to enter the top ten. Unfortunately, Max Chilton could gain only six places to finish in 17th position.

On his behalf, Fabio Leimer was a victim of a hydraulic breakdown, but his 11th place in the second race gives somewhat of an idea to the quality of his driving and the hard work of Ocean Racing Technology.

"The weekend ended rather well for me. It was a hard race because I had been stuck behind slower cars and it was difficult to get through," explained Leimer, "But we’re on the right path and the progresses are significant. Unfortunately, qualifying did not go well and it compromised the final results. We are competitive just like the second race showed, we just miss a tad of luck in qualifying."

Meanwhile, Max Chilton crossed the finish line in 16th position but the Englishman knows that the result does not reflect the team’s true potential.

"Starting from the last row does not help at the Hungaroring and it’s the guarantee that you have to cope with a difficult race," assured Chilton, "It’s been hard gaining positions and from mid-race on tyre wear forced me to take care of my package if I wanted to see the chequered flag. But the car was competitive and I’m sure with a decent qualifying we would have been up there with the front runners. I’m looking forward to race in Spa which is a circuit that I like very much and where, I hope, we will gather together all the pieces of the puzzle in order to be competitive."

The next round of the GP2 Main Series will take place on the Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on the 28th and 29th of August.