Finally - Championship points for Daly

The season long search has been called off. After a long hard road, American, Conor Daly finally found his way into a championship points paying finish at the Hungaroring, in Hungary this weekend.
 
Race one saw him make another storming start from nineteenth on the grid running as high as 8th before his pit stop for a tire change. Unfortunately, a safety car period due to an accident early in the race, meant that all those who started on the softer of the two Pirelli tire compounds took advantage of the accident to make their mandatory pit stop. Daly, and all others who started on the harder compound however, found themselves automatically on the wrong strategy because it was too early to change onto the softer tires. Despite an impressive performance that netted him the third fastest race lap, he crossed the finish line in 13th place.

"I was pleased with the overall pace but disappointed with the result," said Daly. "The new engine is much better and it allowed me to really get in the mix."
 
In race two, his impressive start line reaction time showed again as he blasted off the line and started slicing past cars. He went from his 13th starting position to exit turn one in seventh place.  From there it became a long, hard, tough fight for all the front runners with passing opportunities hard to come by. Lap after lap Daly attacked the Saturday race winner, Arthur Pic, but just could not make it by.

"This is such a competitive series. I ran a faster race lap than the winner, but could not make a pass after the first corner which is why they call this place, 'Monaco without the houses'," commented Daly. "I was stoked after the great start but the difficulty of passing became evident pretty quickly."

Daly went on to finish seventh, which is his best finish of the season and his first championship points haul.
 
Daly now travels back to the States to continue his sponsor hunt during the month long summer break mandated by Formula One. His next race will be in Spa, Belgium, August 22nd-24th. 

Conor Daly