Hungaroring Circuit – Juan Manuel Correa’s number was 14 this weekend at the Formula 3 Hungarian GP: He finished 14th in Qualifying, race 1, race 2 and also in race 3, which took place this morning with a complicated track, as the race started with rain and finished with sun, but with the tarmac wet in some areas. Tyre pressure not adapted to the track conditions complicated Juan Manuel’s race even more.
Third victory of the season for the Norwegian driver Dennis Hauger, who beat his PREMA team-mate and poleman Arthur Leclerc in the race. They shared the podium with Jack Doohan.
All drivers were on rain tyres on the grid for race 3 of the Formula 3 Hungarian Grand Prix, due to the heavy downpour that fell minutes before the start of the race.
Due to the difficult weather conditions, the 30 drivers did two formation laps behind the safety car and then made a flying start. Visibility was almost non-existent, due to the large curtain of water that the cars were emitting. At the start there were no incidents, but at corner 9 Martins collided with Rasmussen, hit the barriers and the safety car came out.
Once the safety car retired after 2 laps on track, the race restarted again with Juan Manuel in 15th position. The rain had stopped, but there was still a lot of water left on the track and Juan Manuel recovered his 14th place.
The question was to choose the right moment to put on dry tyres. Nannini was the first to take the risk and it quickly became clear that it was not the best choice as the track did not dry as quickly as expected.
With 3 laps to go, the safety car came out again due to the accident between Cohen and Tohth. Juan Manuel had defended his position with determination and after the safety car came out it looked like there might be an opportunity to move up a place. However there was no chance as the race ended behind the safety car after 20 laps of the 22 scheduled, as the maximum race time of 40 minutes was exceeded.
Juan Manuel was not very satisfied with the car after finishing the race, but after the first four race weekends, the initial goal of the season has been achieved. Ideally, the aim was to be in the middle of the pack at this stage of the season and that has been achieved. Now in the second part of the season, which will start at the end of August, the objective is not only to be in the points in every race, but also to aim for the podium in the final stretch of the championship.
This is Juan Manuel’s analysis of the race.
“It was very difficult to get the right pace to progress in the race. The track conditions varied quite a lot from the start to the end of the race and the tyre pressure was not the best for the track conditions. I had a lot of problems with the front tyres and when the situation improved thanks to the track conditions it was too late and the race ended with the safety car on track and two laps ahead of schedule, so there wasn’t much to do”, said Juan Manuel.
The next chance will be the Belgian GP, at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit from August 27 to 29.
