Budapest… a land of contrasts. The old saying is quite appropriate to sum up Anthoine Hubert’s hungarian trip pour the third Europcup FR 2.0 championship race. Indeed, the young driver from Chartres dropped by one place in the provisionnal ranking in the middle of the lush hungarian countryside, even though the track was theoretically better suited to Simon and Sarah Abadie’s Tech 1 team than Spa 2 weeks before hand. Strangely at only 4 tenths away from the leader in the trials on Saturday, he didn’t score any points, where as on Sunday, at 6/10 from the pole position he came in 6th.
On the first trial Saturday morning, the Swiss Louis Delétraz (Kaufmann Team ) had taken the upper hand with 1’41’’1 in the first group. With 4 tenths from the englishman Aitken (Koiranen), in first place from the second group, Anthoine was only fourth, which condemed him to the fourth grid position for race 1. The middle of the pack is a danger zone. Everyone was apprehensive about it and Saturday Anthoine abandonned for the first time of the season, and first blank result since the start of the championship. In the second lap he was hit by Agosta (Italy, ; Manor) which destroyed his wheel rim and forced him to abandon. « I wasn’t thinking of attacking him in this turning » explained Anthoine. « I just moved over to the outside to be better positionned for the next turning. But he seemed incapable of turning, maybe he had a problem just before, and he hit me from behind. » In the race, Deletraz would be the sole master… until he was inflicted 10 seconds penalty for an early start… thus Louis, in 3rd position, only scored 15 points instead of 25. And temporarily Anthoine kept his 2nd place in the championship in front of Hughes (GB, Koiranen) with three small points.
On Sunday, with temperatures that would qualify as a heatwave in France (37 degrees), the qualification trials confirmed the superiority of Kaufmann on this hungarian session. Deletraz got the pole with 1’41’’2 and in the next group, his teammate Jorg wasn’t far. Anthoine came 3rd in this session, 6th in the global lap time, but at 6/10 from Jorg. He started from the 3rd line and kept the same 6th position during the whole race, as the Hungaroring doesn’t have a reputation of good overtaking opportunities. « At some moments I came close to Scott, in the slipstram, but lost it quite quickly. He make a little mistake in the penultimate lap but I wasn’t ready enough to make the most of it. » remarked Anthoine. In front, Delétraz didn’t make yesterday’s mistake and claimed a third victory in this season.
Anthoine was overtaken by Hughes in the ranking. The holidays will be a busy time, because although the next race in Silverstone in England is only in september, Anthoine won’t be inactive for three months ! « Some tests will be planned » said Arnaud Cholley Sunday evening, one of Anthoine’s young engineers.
Race 1, saturday. 1. Aitken (GB, Koiranen), 2. Barnicoat (GB, Fortec), 3. Delétraz (Sui, Kaufmann), 4. Jorg (Sui, Kaufmann), 5. Kodric (Cro, Fortec)… 10. Gachet (Fra, Tech1)… Anthoine Hubert (Fra, Tech1) ab.
Race 2, sunday. 1. Delétraz, 2. Jorg, 3. Hughes (GB, Koiranen), 4. Aitken, 5. Scott (GB, AVF), 6. Hubert.
Championship after 7 races : 1. Delétraz 110 points, 2. Hughes 76, 3. Hubert 72, 4. Scott 68, 5. Barnicoat 62…
Next event (4/7) : Silverstone (GB) 29th and 30th august.
Text : Roger DUVIVIER.
