Beganovic aiming to go into the break on a high after positive start in Budapest

Dino Beganovic was fastest in this morning’s Budapest Free Practice and he hopes it is the start of what could be a strong weekend.

In a tightly fought session, the DAMS Lucas Oil driver’s 1:30.720 was good enough to pip rival Gabriele Minì to top spot by just 0.015s.

Speaking in the paddock afterwards and following a team debrief, Beganovic assessed the opening 45 minutes of Round 9.

“I think it was a good session,” he said. “It was quite a dirty track out there today. It started off quite easy and then we picked up the pace throughout the run. I think it was good, especially getting a good feeling back behind the car from Spa. So we are feeling better.

“It’s good to show it here in FP, obviously still only Free Practice but it's a good indication for quali that we are on the pace and obviously we have still a lot to do. Driving wise, still a lot to come, so it's a good start to the weekend.”

This result continues a positive run of form in the pre-summer break back-to-back for Beganovic who was back on the podium at Spa-Francorchamps, after finishing third in the Sprint Race.

“That's how it feels like as well,” said Beganovic when asked whether he was back fighting towards the front. “It’s a bit like in the beginning of the year.

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“We were in a bit of a dark circle at one stage of the season, but now it feels like we're back. It will be nice to have a good quali here and go for the two races with a good result, and then for the holidays.”

Looking ahead to Qualifying, Beganovic and the rest of his rivals will be expecting to meet a very different track.

Formula 1 and Formula 3 are scheduled to hit the Hungaroring circuit before the pole position shootout, and with the soft tyre set to be used for the first time today, the Swede says there will be a lot of adaptation required.

“It's in the end a bit of a guessing game,” he said. “You can try to expect things, predict things, but nobody really knows what we can expect. You can only predict a bit of stuff from years before, and what the tendencies have been.

“We're going to see, we're going to look into the data, try to see what we could have improved still this session, and then what we can do for quali to make it even better.”

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Beganovic was on pole at the opening round of the season in Melbourne. He is yet to win a race however this year, but going into the summer break, positive results in all three remaining sessions is the goal.

“Pole position would be nice,” he said. “That would be a very nice way to go in the summer break, definitely.

“Podiums would be even nicer. We need a good result now, we need the points, and we have a good starting point of the weekend, so that's great.”