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Dino Beganovic set the pace in Free Practice for DAMS Lucas Oil, emerging fastest from an extremely close session with a lap of 1:30.720. The Swede finished just 0.015 seconds ahead of MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì, while Nico Varrone completed the top three for Van Amersfoort Racing, only 0.021s away from the benchmark.
The result underlined the narrow margins at the front, with the leading positions changing repeatedly during the session. Teams now turn their attention to qualifying, scheduled for Friday afternoon, with the green light due at 15:55 local time. The wider Budapest weekend schedule is available in our Formula 3 Hungaroring session guide.
Hitech’s Colton Herta established the early reference with a 1:33.077 during the opening 10 minutes. His teammate Ritomo Miyata then moved to the top with a 1:32.053, before Rafael Câmara produced a 1:31.484 for Invicta Racing to take over by more than half a second.
Sebastiàn Montoya and Herta reduced that advantage to four-tenths on their next attempts. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak subsequently moved into second for ART Grand Prix, 0.219s off the lead with less than 30 minutes remaining. Martinius Stenshorne went closer still, reaching second within 0.102s of Câmara, who responded with a 1:31.144.
Montoya and Minì then climbed to second and third, while Rafael Villagómez moved into fourth for Van Amersfoort Racing. The sequence was interrupted when Mari Boya found the barriers at Turn 1 after a heavy lock-up, bringing out the red flag.
Running resumed with 19 minutes left, and the field returned to the circuit to build its lap count. Minì then displaced Câmara with a 1:30.744, going four-tenths clear, before Nikola Tsolov moved into second, 0.388s behind.
Beganovic seized the lead with around 10 minutes remaining. Tsolov went faster, but his lap was deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving the DAMS driver on top with his 1:30.720. Varrone initially moved into second before Minì split the two on his next attempt.
At the chequered flag, Tsolov was fourth ahead of Câmara. Alexander Dunne, Oliver Goethe, Stenshorne, Roman Bilinski and Laurens van Hoepen completed the top 10.
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