In another week of racing for the Formula Regional European Championship, the MP Motorsport team entered round 5 of the 2026 season to compete at the home of Hungarian motorsport, the Hungaroring.
Competing at such a demanding technical track, the team entered the weekend on a high, coming off a strong weekend at Monza where the team left in P2 and Sebastian was leading the drivers' championship.
The MP Motorsport drivers took to the Hungaroring track for the first time of the race weekend for Free Practice 1.
Securing P2 in the session and fastest of the MP Motorsport team, Alexander completed 21 laps of the circuit, with his 14th lap of 1:38.231 being his fastest.
Only 0.1 seconds slower than his teammate, in P3 for the session, Sebastian set his fastest lap of 1:38.331 on his 16th lap of 20.
Finally, only completing 15 laps, Newman set a fastest time of 1:39.035 on his 11th lap, placing P24 in the session.
Free Practice Results:
For the final free practice session of the 2026 Formula Regional European Championship weekend, the drivers took to the track eager to improve their performance from FP1.
Fastest of the MP Motorsport drivers, Sebastian locked in P2 with a fastest lap time of 1:38.487 completed on his 16th of 21 laps.
Only 0.147 seconds off his teammate, Alexander, on his 17th of 21 laps secured a fastest time of 1:38.634, placing P4 in the session.
Finally, with a fastest lap time of 1:39;682 on his 20th of 21 laps, Newman ended up P27 in the session overall.
Moving forward, with qualifying sessions up ahead, the drivers aimed to improve upon their free practice times to be in good positions for the races later on in the weekend.
Free Practice Results:
The first qualifying session of round 5 of the Formula Regional European Championship at the Hungaroring took place with two 15-minute group qualifying sessions.
Taking part in Group A for MP Motorsport were Sebastian and Newman.
Fastest of the two, Sebastian qualified in P5 for Group A with a fastest lap time of 1:38.272, securing his position on his eighth and final flying lap.
Newman qualified in P12 with his fastest lap time of 1:38.706, which he logged on his fifth of eight total laps.
On his own for the Group B session for MP Motorsport was Alexander. He secured a fastest lap time of 1:38.116 on his sixth of eight laps, locking in P6 in his 15-minute session.
Qualifying 1 Results:
Race 1 went ahead at the Hungaroring, and the MP Motorsport drivers went racing for the first time of the weekend. Qualifying highest of the MP Motorsport team, Sebastian started in P7, with Alexander behind him in P15, and Newman further down in P21.
At the start of the first lap, Sebastian fell to P8, while Alex gained a position and was up to P14, while Newman also gained a position and was up to P20.
With less than 29 minutes to go, Newman overtook Francisco Macedo and Noah Lisle, snatching up P18 for himself. 2 minutes later, Alex began to challenge Rahim Alibhai for P13 and passed him, taking the position.
With 25 minutes to go, Newman continued his climb up the positions, where he overtook Gabriel Gomez to take P17 for himself. Later on, Francisco Macedo attempted to snatch the position from Newman, but his defence was strong, and he held off the Van Amersfoort Racing driver.
With 17 minutes to go, Sebastian began his chase for P7, putting pressure on Saqer Almaosherji. Unfortunately, with 13 minutes to go, Sebastian locked up and spun on T1 and T2 and ended up stranded at T3. Other drivers drove past, and he was unable to rejoin; as a result, he fell to P29.
Sebastian's incident promoted Alexander to P12 and Newman to P16. Although unfortunate, Sebastian continued to make up as many places as he could to salvage the race. He overtook Reno Francot for P28, then on the final lap, overtook Andrija Kostić for P27. Crossing the line, Sebastian finished in P26 overall.
With less than 2 minutes left, Rahim Alibhai fell down the order, which promoted Newman to P15, where he finished the race. Finally, in a good drive, Alexander finished in a solid P12.
Race 1 Results:
For the second round of qualifying for round 5, the MP Motorsport drivers took to the track to determine their positions for the final race.
In the same groups from the first round of qualifying, Alexander took part in the first 15-minute session in Group B. Alexander went fastest in the session with a final flying lap of 1:37.912.
Sebastian and Newman took part in Group A in the final 15-minute session. Sebastian went fourth fastest in the session with a fastest time of 1:37.889. A couple of thousandths of a second off his teammate in P8 in the session was Newman with a 1:38.286 lap time.
In a solid final qualifying session, the drivers put themselves in a good position for the final race.
Qualifying 2 Results:
The second and final race of the Formula Regional championship went away on a cloudy day at the Hungaroring, with Alexander on the front row in P2, Sebastian in P7 and Newman in P17.
Alexander was able to keep his position on the launch, while Sebastian fell to P8 and Newman made up three places to P14 ahead of Dion Gowda.
With under 21 minutes remaining, Newman battled wheel to wheel with Jan Przyrowski and snatched the P13 position within the lap.
With 15 minutes remaining, Seb went wide into the grass and fell to last place on the grid before his race was prematurely ended. As a result, Newman was promoted to P12.
Following the incident, with 13 minutes remaining, Alexander was under pressure from Emanuele Olivieri behind him, but defended well and held his track position.
A safety car was called out with less than 12 minutes to go for the car of Tomass Štolcermanis, and the race went green again with eight and a half minutes to go.
On the restart, Salim Hanna had begun to put pressure on Newman. With 6 minutes left, Salim Hanna challenged Newman for the position; both drivers contacted, resulting in the Prema driver spinning off into the grass and out of the race. Amidst the chaos, Newman remained in P12.
A safety car was deployed for Salim Hanna’s car, which remained until the flags; this resulted in Alexander finishing on the podium in P2, while Newman finished in P12.
Unfortunately, post-race, both drivers received penalties and were demoted. Alexander fell to P15 after receiving a six-second time penalty for using Racemode when not permitted. While Newman was given a ten-second time penalty for the collision with Salim Hanna. Although he lost his podium finish, Alexander did come home with the fastest lap of the race with a 1:40.815.
Race 2 Results:
Moving forward, after an unlucky weekend in the races at the Hungaroring. The drivers exhibited great pace throughout free practice and qualifying sessions.
Leaving the weekend behind, MP Motorsports concluded the weekend in P2 of the teams championship with Sebastian in P3 of the drivers championship.
With the next race at Circuit Paul Ricard occurring at the end of July, the team can recuperate and prepare for round five in France.
Driver Standings After Round 5:
Team Standings After Round 5:
