The weekend began on Friday with the Collective Tests, where James finished in 6th and 7th place in the two sessions, respectively.
Saturday's qualifying session was particularly demanding due to wet track conditions and was postponed because of heavy rain. Despite these difficult conditions, James earned a 9th place start for Race 1. The first race was a true test of skill and strategy. The Australian driver adopted a cautious approach, avoided unnecessary risks, and finished in P6.
Sunday brought a fresh set of challenges for Race 2, where James started from P7. He made a decent start, gaining a position immediately at Turn 1. The race saw the positions frozen until a Safety Car was deployed. This interruption, which allowed Wharton to gain two places, lasted most of the race, leaving just two minutes plus one lap for the drivers to battle it out. In this brief window, James assessed the situation and made up another position, crossing the line in 5th place. After the race, Wharton was promoted to P4 due to a penalty imposed on his teammate Rafael Câmara.
The Hungarian round marked the first clean weekend for James Wharton since the beginning of the championship. The Australian driver therefore brought home 20 points without any setbacks, setting a positive tone for the upcoming rounds.
“It’s been a tough weekend. We didn’t quite have the pace this week. I feel like we maximized our points and we need to take the positives that we had a clean weekend and scored the points that we could. I’m not satisfied because we’re not fighting where we are meant to be. But overall, we scored 20 points and we can move to the next round”.
The next event in the FRECA Championship will take place at the Mugello Circuit from July 12th to 14th.