Fornaroli confident heading to Spa after ‘positive’ Budapest weekend

Leonardo Fornaroli was satisfied with how his Budapest weekend went, finishing third in the Feature Race. But the Trident driver has already turned his attentions to Spa-Francorchamps where he hopes to achieve an “amazing” result.

The Italian driver was one of the few able to deliver their final Qualifying laps on Friday prior to a Red Flag and started the Feature Race from third after finishing seventh in the Sprint.

However, he lost a position at the start to Noel León despite a strong getaway and with overtaking at the Hungaroring quite difficult he could not retake third.

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But, following a post-race disqualification for ART Grand Prix driver Laurens van Hoepen, who had finished second, Fornaroli was promoted up to P3.

This means the Italian moves to 112 points and while he remains fourth in the Championship, he is now just seven points behind leader Gabriele Minì.

Reflecting on the race prior to finding out about the disqualification, Fornaroli said: “The start was amazing, it was maybe too good that I immediately caught the two cars in front of me. Then I decided to go on the inside and then had no space to go and then I got stuck on the inside.

“We watched the replay, maybe there was more space on the left, but in that moment, you have half a second to decide, so I decided to go on the inside, but it was the wrong way.

“So, I cut back on the inside and León passed me on the outside and then I tried to overtake at T2, but it was very difficult. It was just about pushing because there was actually not so much degradation.

“So, pretty much till the end nothing happened, the pace was good, but I couldn't really get close to León to try to overtake him back, so we finished P4. Of course, not what I was hoping for but still good points, positive weekend but now we are going to Spa readier than ever to try to get an amazing result.”

Fornaroli admits he is confident heading to Spa not only because of their performance in Budapest but also as Trident have a very good history at the Belgian venue.

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The Italian outfit have won the Feature Race at Spa-Francorchamps in four of the last five seasons and Fornaroli is keen to get back into the car at historic circuit.

“I hope to be back on top in Spa,” said Fornaroli. “I am very confident going into the weekend. It’s a track that I really like, so tomorrow we are back in the simulator to try and improve my driving and make it as good as possible to achieve the best results that we can.”

On how he views the title situations with two rounds to go, Fornaroli added: “Of course that's the aim, so I will just try to continue like this, maybe even better and see what will happen. Two rounds to go but everything can happen.”