Armstrong on the attack in Hungary

| Photographer Credit: Joe Portlock

Marcus Armstrong fought back from a mid-field qualifying position to finish eighth in the first race of two at the latest round of the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

He dominated the first half of qualifying but then struck traffic as a half dozen rivals slapped down quicker and quicker times, eventually overtaking the Kiwi.

The PREMA Racing squad faced a difficult qualifying session on Saturday morning, with Robert Shwartzman, Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala ending up in 4th, 13th and 17th place respectively due to traffic in the second part of qualifying.

“Qualifying was a bit of a disaster, being fastest in the first run and 13th in the second after I made a mistake on lap 1 and caught traffic on lap 2. The race was great fun. It felt like 2016 when I was racing in karting in the rain, just using wide lines and kerbs, fighting, banging wheels. It was really fun.”

In the race, Shwartzman stumbled off the line, losing several positions. Armstrong put in a gritty drive to move from 14th to eighth, scoring four more points toward his championship campaign and securing pole for the second race which takes place at 8:00 pm

Mark Baker has been working in automotive PR and communications for more than two decades. For much longer than that he has been a motorsport journalist, photographer and competitor, witness to most of the most exciting and significant motorsport trends and events of the mid-late 20th Century. His earliest memories of motorsport were trips to races at Ohakea in the early 1960s, and later of annual summer pilgrimages to watch Shellsport racers and Mini 7s at Bay Park and winter sorties into forests around Kawerau and Rotorua to see the likes of Russell Brookes, Ari Vatanen and Mike Marshall ply their trade in group 4 Escorts. Together with Murray Taylor and TV producer/director Dave Hedge he has been responsible for helping to build New Zealand’s unique Toyota Racing Series into a globally recognized event brand under category managers Barrie and Louise Thomlinson. Now working for a variety of automotive and mainstream commercial clients, Mark has a unique perspective on recent motor racing history and the future career paths of our best and brightest young racers.

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