F3: Taponen pips Slater to pole in engaging Budapest Qualifying

Tuukka Taponen claimed his maiden FIA Formula 3 pole position, beating Freddie Slater to pole by just 0.042s in Budapest.

The MP Motorsport driver was one of the last to complete their final lap and came across the line to complete a 1:33.411.

This means the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member is set to go from P1 in Sunday’s Feature Race, while Slater lines up on the front row for the fourth consecutive race weekend.

Mattia Colnaghi made it an MP 1-3 as the Red Bull junior achieved his best Formula 3 Qualifying result.

DAMS Lucas Oil driver Nicola Lacorte followed in fourth place ahead of Rodin Motorsport’s Brando Badoer in fifth.

Championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu leads the Campos Racing trio in sixth place, with team mate Theophile Nael in seventh and Ernesto Rivera in eighth.

Hitech’s Jin Nakamura was ninth ahead of the second DAMS car of Gerrard Xie, as ART Grand Prix rookies Maciej Gladysz and Kanato Le rounded out the top 12.

This means Le is set to start from reverse grid pole in Saturday's Sprint Race, with team mate Gladysz joining him on the front row.

That race is set to start at 1005 local time, but until then you can read more about today’s FIA Formula 3 Qualifying on the official website here.