Impressive Season Best GB3 Results For Hillspeed Trio At Hungaroring
Hillspeed’s GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC trio Dante Vinci, Peter Bouzinelos and Aurelia Nobels enjoyed a season-best outing at the Hungaroring over the weekend, 4th/5th July, with each making impressive strides in the third event of the 2026 campaign.
Vinci built on 11th place in round seven on Saturday to claim a much improved top six in round eight on Sunday and then seventh in round nine at the Budapest track. In doing so, he achieved points finishes in all three races of a meeting for the first time in his rookie GB3 season.
Australian compatriot Bouzinelos, who was the quickest Hillspeed driver in qualifying for the first time this year with an excellent top eight performance, made sure of a best-yet eighth in race one before misfortune struck in the two subsequent contests with a brace of luckless retirements.
Nobels bounced back from a puncture and non-finish in round seven to deliver a top eight result in round eight, her best finish of the year by far, but then had to settle for a 15th place in the Safety Car peppered final race of the weekend.
Highly competitive results but mixed fortune too in Hungary
Bouzinelos produced a superb performance in qualifying on Saturday morning, charging to eighth on the grid for the first two Hungaroring races. In session one he lapped with a time of 1m36.373 seconds, then improved in session two straight after with a lap of 1m35.821 seconds.
Team-mate Nobels also enjoyed one of her most competitive qualifying outings of the year, 12th quickest in session one, 1m36.801 seconds, and 13th in session two with a lap of 1m36.141 seconds. Vinci, who had been a top 10 constant in testing, had to settle for 13th in qualifying one, a fraction shy of Nobels, but took an improved 11th quickest in qualifying two – a time of 1m36.013 seconds.
Bouzinelos made a good launch from row four at the start of Saturday afternoon’s round seven, nosing into seventh on the run to the first corner before having to tuck back in to eighth. Producing good pace, on lap six he crafted a great pass around the outside at Turn One.
Although shuffled back to ninth the next time around, just before a Safety Car period, the GB3 rookie continued to battle hard in a tight group and on the last lap took eighth due to a penalty for a rival to seal his best finish of the season.
Vinci was able to leapfrog team-mate Nobels at the start, moving into 12th place, with both then moving up a position on lap seven when a rival crashed out – triggering the aforementioned Safety Car. Before the race resumed Nobels had to pull off track with a frustrating right-rear puncture, while Vinci ultimately finished in 11th place.
Round eight on Sunday morning fell under Safety Car conditions almost immediately after Bouzinelos’ car was hit at the rear into Turn One. Making a good start from eighth, his car was tagged as he headed into the corner on the inside – causing damage and pitching him into retirement. Vinci and Nobels, meanwhile, both gained by moving up from 11th to eighth and 13th to ninth respectively.
While under caution on lap two, another car stopped on track and so at the re-start on lap four Vinci was seventh with Nobels right behind in eighth. She immediately applied pressure over the line, but the Safety Car signals remained due to a technical issue.
Racing finally resumed on lap six, with light rain in the air, and Nobels judged the re-start perfectly to again pressurise the sister Hillspeed car. As things settled, Vinci put some space between himself and Nobels and on lap nine a rival slowed which moved the Hillspeeds into sixth and seventh. Vinci held on to his season best sixth while Nobels was edged back to a nonetheless excellent eighth.
For round nine Vinci lined-up second on the grid, Bouzinelos fifth and Nobels on row seven. Vinci held second through Turn One, after showing his nose to the pole starter with a cut-back, while Bouzinelos was edged back to seventh and Nobels gained two places into 11th spot.
The first of three Safety Car periods was then required on lap two and at the re-start the next time around Vinci slipped to third but was determined to hit back. After another cautionary period a few laps later Vinci was still third, Bouzinelos eighth and Nobels up to ninth. Racing resumed again on lap 10 and Vinci lost out, being held out at Turn One and then slipping to fifth off-line through Turn Two.
Just behind, Bouzinelos had an unfortunate spin at the first corner as Nobels looked to the inside, slight contact was made as Nobels moved by and she had to pit for a new front wing – finishing 15th after a late Safety Car. Bouzinelos’ race ended on the spot, while Vinci took the flag on lap 13 in sixth place but was later demoted to seventh due to a penalty linked to a lap one incident.
Richard Ollerenshaw – Hillspeed Team Principal:
“All three drivers made a big step forward over the last few days in Hungary, it was the first circuit we’ve been to this season in GB3 where we had a much more level playing field in terms of many having never been to the track before. Testing was very strong and qualifying was good as well so, from that point of view, we were very pleased.
“The guys in the team worked exceptionally hard all weekend and it’s disappointing the races didn’t yield what we’d seen in testing from Dante, Peter and Aurelia. That said, they all had some extremely positive highlights and we’re now looking forward to the Red Bull Ring a few days from now.”
GB3 remains in Europe for next weekend’s visit to the Red Bull Ring in Austria, which will host rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the season across 11th/12th July.
GB3 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd9)
14th Dante Vinci, 63pts; 19th Aurelia Nobels, 34pts; 23rd Peter Bouzinelos, 22pts
GB3 Championship Team Standings (after Rd9)
6th Hillspeed, 118pts
