The Banbury-based squad arrived at the 2.7-mile circuit on the outskirts of Budapest aiming to continue their recent form, with three podium finishes from the previous four races.
All three cars were a mainstay in the top ten throughout practice and qualifying, with a triple-points finish in a torrentially wet, red-flagged opening race eventually proving to be the highlight of the weekend.
With the entire contest staged behind the safety car, Frank Bird led the trio home in sixth – his best finish of the season so far – ahead of Patrik Pasma and Alex Quinn in seventh and eighth respectively.
Quinn’s second-row starting slot put him in with a shout of another podium in just his second weekend in the championship, but fate dealt the British ace a poor hand.
An electrical problem shortly before the start side-lined him, with team-mates Pasma and Bird both casualties of other people’s incidents at the first corner.
Regardless, the entire team can look forward with optimism to the next event at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain, over the weekend of 28-29 September.
Ben Salter, Arden Formula Renault Team Manager said:
“We are bitterly disappointed with the results, as the team and drivers have performed so well this weekend and to have one car fail to start due to a technical issue beyond our control, and the other two to be eliminated at the first corner is a hard one to take.
“But we’ve shown we have a competitive package to compete at the front of the Eurocup field and we look forward to Barcelona.”
Patrik Pasma (#31) said:
“The weekend was quite hard for me and I think as a team we struggled a bit compared to the Nurburgring.
“The first race was just driving behind the safety car so there was no opportunity to gain positions, leaving me seventh.
“Sunday was really unlucky, I got hit in the first corner by someone behind so my rear wing was broken, which made driving really hard and overtaking impossible.”
Frank Bird (#32) said:
“It was a bittersweet weekend, really. We showed really good pace all weekend but had some bad luck as well.
“We finished sixth in the red-flagged race, which was a good result. I made a good start in the second race, but got taken out at Turn 1 by a spinning car. Thank you to the entire team for their hard work – the car had been mega all weekend. On to the next one in Barcelona!”
Alex Quinn (#33) said:
“This weekend was really mixed for us, we had the pace to be on the podium but didn’t manage to grab it.
“I feel like we had an amazing chance in race two, starting from fourth, but an electrical problem through no fault of the team meant we couldn’t take the start.
“We have to take the positives and have one last blast at Barcelona!”