Hungary brings joy for King
Date: 07 / 08 / 2019
Jordan King finished the FIA Formula 2 weekend in Hungary on a high, claiming two top-six finishes to come home in fourth and sixth respectively, giving the Brit his biggest points haul of the season.
The 25-year-old enjoyed another weekend of success at the Hungaroring, where the eighth round of competition brought many thrills for Jordan – including a well-executed strategy on Sunday and a fantastic fourth-place finish in Sunday’s sprint race.
The weekend got off to a good start for the driver hailing from Warwickshire as he finished fourth fastest in the free practice session, which put him in good stead for qualifying later that afternoon. However, the weather took a turn for the worst and the wet qualifying session saw Jordan record a 10th place starting position.
Feature Race
With the weather dramatically better on Saturday afternoon, Jordan began the feature race from the fifth row on the grid. Jordan got a clean start off the line and set about setting consistent lap times lap after lap at the Hungaroring.
It was here where his experience really shone through and, on the harder tyres, Jordan was able to keep with the pack whilst also playing the long strategy by staying out later than his competitors.
His hard work paid off and after his pitstop he rejoined the proceedings in ninth position and used the softer compound to his advantage to push his way through the order into sixth place.
However, with a safety car deployed late in the race, the race was neutralised and this prohibited him from securing a potential podium. Nonetheless, Jordan crossed the line – under safety car conditions – to take an excellent sixth place and 10 championship points, as well as the fastest lap of the race.
Sprint Race
The second race proved to be another successful outing for Jordan, who lost a position at the start of the race but kept his head down to stick onto the back of Sergio Sette Camara. Despite pressuring Sette Camara, Jordan was unfortunately not able to perform an overtake and crossed the line in fourth to end the weekend on a high.
With two points-scoring races under his belt, Jordan hauled a total of 18 points from the action in Hungary to mark another rewarding effort and remain in 10th in the championship with 59 points.
“I am pretty happy with the results from the weekend,” Jordan said. “We have plenty of positives to take away from Hungary – the pace was good and my tyre management was also strong. This allowed us to play the long game in the feature race and that paid off after starting from 10th. The safety car at the end hindered progress but that is just racing!
“Sunday was good too, but it was a shame to miss out on a podium by less than a second in the sprint race, but I could not get close enough to perform an overtake. Moving forward now, we just need to keep this momentum going. As long as we keep scoring points and improving our pace, we are heading in the right direction!”
Jordan – who is currently embarking on a 500-mile charity bike ride – has a four-week break from F2 action before the championship returns from its summer break at Spa, Belgium on 30 August to 1st September.