Luke closes in despite toughest weekend of the campaign

Luke Browning closed the gap to top spot in the FIA Formula 3 Championship standings despite enduring his most challenging weekend of the season to date in Hungary.

The Hitech Pulse-Eight driver had slipped to third in the points after the rain-affected British Grand Prix support races at Silverstone, where mixed conditions in the feature race had robbed him of the chance to battle for victory on home soil.

Sitting seven points down on Gabriele Minì going into the weekend, and a single point behind fellow Briton Arvid Lindblad, Luke showed solid pace during free practice at the Hungaroring as he secured the third quickest time, leaving confidence high as he looked to score pole for the third successive meeting.

Qualifying however would prove to be a frustrating affair for the Williams F1-backed charger, who was seeking to improve on P7 on his final flying lap when he ran wide on dirt dropped on the circuit and clattered into the barriers.

That brought out the red flag, with the decision then taken later in the evening to remove Luke’s best time for causing the stoppage – dropping him down to 15th on the grid for both races at one of the most difficult circuits on the calendar on which to overtake.

After the initial start was aborted due to a driver being out of position on the grid, Luke made a fine getaway from the line when the lights went out and took the outside line at turn one to make up places – immediately vaulting up three places into twelfth.

Following a brief Virtual Safety Car period, Luke took advantage of a moment for two drivers ahead on the restart to move up into the top ten before getting ahead of Sami Meguetounif into ninth.

Laurens van Hoepen was also dispatched before the finish as Luke took the flag in eighth spot to pick up three vital points – moving him ahead of Lindblad in the standings and closing the gap to Minì as both failed to score.

Although he once again made up places when the feature race kicked off, Luke would find himself trapped in a train of cars all stuck behind seventh-placed Callum Voisin. With those drivers all benefitting from the use of DRS, overtaking would be at a premium as Luke took the flag in 13th spot before being promoted into twelfth post-race following a penalty for one of the racers ahead.

However, with Minì also failing to make it into the points and Lindblad crashing out late on, Luke ends the weekend four points off top spot in the standings heading to Spa next weekend for the penultimate meeting of the season.

“Looking back on qualifying, I think that was a tough decision,” he said. “The stewards have a tough job, but I think it was ruled out as being down to a mistake by myself. When there’s something down on the circuit and you go through it, it is what it is.

“If we’d started where we’d qualified then I think we could have had a win as we had so much pace in the sprint race, but it was all about not doing anything stupid.

“Every point at this stage of the season is crucial and although we failed to score in the feature race, we have closed the gap across the weekend and will come out fighting when we get to Spa next weekend.”