Highly-rated MSA Team UK and FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy racer Seb Morris faces another new challenge this coming weekend, 25th/26th July, when the GP3 Series visits the Hungaroring near Budapest – the 19-year-old’s first visit to the Hungarian venue.
Off the back of a competitive outing on home ground at Silverstone a fortnight ago, where the Welshman produced his most promising qualifying run of the year and only just missed out on adding to his points tally, Seb is determined to make continued progress a few days from now.
Driving for Status Grand Prix, the Serge DeNimes and Shazam ambassador has been working hard with the team engineers since the beginning of the season to unlock as much performance as possible and to achieve a set-up he can fully exploit in both qualifying and race trim.
The steps forward made last time out at Silverstone clearly showed a big improvement for the Marford teenager in qualifying and only an unfortunate track limits penalty – which removed his fastest lap time – prevented a potential top six start in the first of the weekend’s two races.
While the knock-on effect of that made a points finish much less likely, the overall pace produced at the wheel of his Dallara single-seater confirmed the key progress which could well deliver two strong results in rounds seven and eight this weekend.
Qualifying is likely to be the most important factor in Hungary, a circuit which is notoriously challenging where overtaking is concerned. With passing opportunities seriously limited, Seb says the ability to put the perfect lap together in the grid-determining session will be paramount.
“Hungaroring is a track which should be good for hooking a lap up in qualifying, but it’s very aero dependent so racing will be difficult and overtaking a real challenge”, commented Seb, “That only emphasises what I need to do in qualifying, it’s going to be so important to nail that lap time to make sure we’re as high up the grid as we can be for race one.
“Had we been able to keep the lap at Silverstone which would have put us in the top six on the grid, the whole weekend would have been a different story. It’s great to be going to Hungary for the first time and we’re definitely targeting another step forward from Silverstone.”
With a best result of fifth position so far in his maiden season in the FIA Formula One World Championship support category, following a sensational drive through the order from 19th on the grid in round four at the Red Bull Ring last month, the Sport Wales-backed driver goes into the fourth event of the GP3 season holding 13th position in the points standings.
Qualifying for round seven of the GP3 Series campaign will take place at 08.45 (UK time) on Saturday, 25th July, with the first race of the weekend following at 16.20 (UK time). Round eight is scheduled to begin at 08.25 (UK time) on Sunday, 26th July, and both races will be screened live in the UK on the Sky Sports F1 channel.
2015 GP3 Series Driver Standings (after Rd6): 13th Seb Morris, 6pts
