Round 4 of the GP3 Series took place at the historic Hungaroring circuit, close to the city of Budapest, in Hungary on the 24-26th of July and Thai driver Sandy Stuvik had a steep hill to climb in order to improve on his results at the Silverstone Grand Prix held 2 weeks previously.
In Hungary, Stuvik claimed 17th place in qualifying on Saturday morning with a time of 1.35.090, over a second behind pole position driver Luca Ghiotto but setting himself up for a challenge in the race later that evening.
Thai driver Sandy Stuvik in action at the Hungaroring, Sunday, July 26.
“We’ve improved from our last race but I made some big mistakes on my best lap which cost us 3 tenths. I took an extra day on the sim and we’ve completely changed our mentality from the last round. We’ve still got a ways to go but I feel we’ve now found a good basis to begin our hunt for more points,” commented Stuvik.
Unfortunately for Sandy his race would be over before he even reached the grid. Due to a loose ignition switch causing a faulty engine, the GP3 tech team had to bridge a connection to keep the ignition on. Eventually Stuvik got out on track and set several fastest laps before the end of the race but finished in a lowly 22nd place. First place went to Luca Ghiotto, with Esteban Ocon and Marvin Kirchhofer filling out the podium.
The final race of the weekend took place on Sunday morning and starting from the back of the field, Stuvik had a lot of work to do in order to climb up the order.
The Thai driver had a poor start and was cautious into the first few corners. After a short safety car intervention, Stuvik started to make up some positions and thanks to some good overtakes and a few shunts further up the order, Sandy finished in 14th. First place this time went to Kevin Ceccon, followed by Esteban Ocon and Jimmy Eriksson in second and third positions.
Stuvik said later: “I’m sure it could have gone better today if I was a bit more aggressive at the start of the race, but a top-ten was always going to be very difficult starting from the back.”
The next race will take place at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on August 21-23. Stuvik has always done well at Spa, so he’ll be looking to score some more points to pull himself higher up the championship standings.
