Bennett Scores Points After Qualifying Disappointment in Hungary

John Bennett battled back from qualifying adversity to achieve a brace of impressive top-10 results in the latest FIA Formula 2 Championship round in Hungary this past weekend (24-26 July).

The Salisbury-based racer, who scored his maiden win in the F1 support series in Austria last month, headed into the ninth round of the season in Budapest off the back of his best-ever qualifying result at Spa-Francorchamps last time out.

Bennett and his Trident team took to the tight and technical 2.7-mile Hungaroring circuit on Friday, starting with promising times in free practice. The British talent was optimistic of carrying that pace forward into the all-important qualifying session that afternoon.

In front of the Sky Sports F1 cameras and a packed trackside crowd, Bennett settled into the session and bolted on his second set of soft Pirelli slicks ready to fight for a place at the sharp end of the grid. A purple opening sector put him right in contention for a top result, however it was not to be as he got blocked by another driver. Forced to back off in avoidance, he had to settle for 14th on the timesheets.

That opening contest took place on Saturday afternoon, with Bennett's eyes firmly focused on progression through the pack. At a circuit notoriously tough to overtake at, Bennett managed to make up ground with a strong performance. After passing Oliver Goethe and evading incidents ahead, he chased both Joshua Durksen and Martinius Stenshorne all the way to the flag, taking 10th place.

Sunday played host to the longer feature race, where strategy would come into the equation with a mandatory pitstop. Bennett was one to opt for a longer first stint on the medium Pirelli tyre compound, hoping to attack in the final stages when switching to the softer option with a lighter fuel load.

Once again, Bennett started the race positively by gaining two positions from the off, but he was also affected by a loss of downforce when his left front wing endplate was damaged from being sandwiched at Turn 5 by the out-of-control cars of Nikola Tsolov and Stenshorne rejoining from their own separate collision.

Bennett climbed into the top 10, and pitted for soft tyres on lap 18 of the race from eighth. The additional grip helped Bennett set a string of fastest laps at first, and he settled into a points-paying 10th position after all stops had played out. The former GB3 vice champion expertly held off the attacks of Alex Dunne in the closing laps to secure the final points place.

John Bennett: "It's nice to have climbed into the points this weekend. I feel like our pace throughout was quite strong once again, which proved that we've got ourselves into a sweet spot, and we'd hoped to kick on with another good qualifying.

"What happened was unfortunate, however, as we were blocked on our best lap and that effectively put us out of position in the pack, at a circuit notoriously difficult to overtake. It was not ideal, but we made it work in the races, making up eight places across the weekend and scoring another point for the championship in the feature race on Sunday.

"I'm feeling good in the car, and that points towards a strong second half to the year, so we'll see what we can achieve next time at Monza, which is an exciting circuit that we went well at last year."

Bennett now enters a summer break before returning to FIA Formula 2 action in Italy at the 'Temple of Speed', Monza, from 4 to 6 September.