13 juin 2015
Pole for Rowland at the Hungaroring
Formula Renault 3.5 Series championship leader Oliver Rowland (Fortec Motorsports) secured his second pole of the season at the Hungaroring on Saturday morning. The Racing Steps Foundation driver posted a fastest time of 1:28.867 to take the session from Egor Orudzhev (Arden Motorsport), the fastest rookie of the morning, who will be lining up on the front row for the first time in the category. Lining up behind the SMP Racing driver will be Lotus F1 Junior Team member Matthieu Vaxiviere (Lotus), with Jazeman Jaafar (Fortec Motorsports) starting fourth and Tom Dillmann (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) fifth.
The Formula Renault 3.5 Series field was on the track at 8.30 sharp for the start of the first qualifying session of the weekend in Hungary. Oliver Rowland was the first to set a time, though it was his closest rival Matthieu Vaxiviere who stood atop the timesheets when the drivers came in for new tyres.
Tom Dillmann led the field out for the final ten-minute sprint before Egor Orudzhev and then Oliver Rowland took charge. The British driver outpaced everyone with a lap of 1:28.867 to score his second pole of the season from leading rookie Orudzhev, with Matthieu Vaxiviere, Jazeman Jaafar and Tom Dillmann completing the top five.
The first Formula Renault 3.5 Series race of the Hungaroring weekend gets under way at 11.45.
What they said
Oliver Rowland : “The gaps are always close here, but the car is really nice to drive, with high-downforce and the high-speed corners. We needed to make sure that the track conditions were good and that we got the most out of the car, which I think I did. The key now is to make a good start and take care of the tyres. We tested DRS and it doesn’t come into play much at Budapest because the straight is too short for it to have an impact.”
