QUALIFYING: Taponen stuns to take pole ahead of Slater late on in Budapest

Tuukka Taponen left it late to take his first ever Aramco Pole Position Award, sealing top spot with a 1:33.411.

The MP Motorsport driver left it until the final lap of the day to take the top time by 0.042s over Slater, with teammate Mattia Colnaghi rounding out the top three – 0.072s away from Taponen.

There was a mixture of strategies to start the session, with PREMA Racing, ART Grand Prix, DAMS Lucas Oil and Hitech all sending their drivers out later than the rest.

But after the first set of times it was Théophile Nael on top after a 1:33.533, with Taponen his closest challenger 0.019s behind in second.

In the battle between the top two drivers in the championship, Slater was seventh, while Ugo Ugochukwu was ninth after a huge lock up at Turn 1.

The drivers returned to the track with 18 minutes to go on new Medium tyres.

Slater then went quickest on a 1:33.451 with Nicola Lacorte just behind him in second, 0.064s behind, ahead of Brando Badoer in third. Critically in the title fight, Ugochukwu was down in P12.

The drivers returned to the pitlane to strap on another set of Mediums for their final laps of the day.

On this occasion, Slater could not improve as Colnaghi went up to second, 0.024s off the top time.

The TRIDENT driver looked set for pole until Taponen snatched P1 with a 1:33.411, eclipsing Slater by just 0.040s.

Colnaghi was in P3, with Lacorte in fourth ahead of Brand Badoer. Ugochukwu’s final lap put him as the lead Campos Racing car in P6 followed by his teammates Nael and Ernesto Rivera.

Jin Nakamura was ninth ahead of Gerrard Xie, with ART Grand Prix drivers Maciej Gladysz and Kanato Le rounding out the top 12.

Le is set to start from reverse grid pole position in Saturday’s Sprint Race. Lights out at the Hungaroring is currently scheduled for 10:05 local time.