The Italian-Canadian driver secured his best qualifying result of the 2026 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season with Target Competition before a clutch issue forced him to retire in the opening moments of the race.
Budapest (H), July 26th, 2026 – Aldo Festante leaves the Hungaroring with encouraging signs in terms of outright pace, but also the frustration of seeing another promising weekend compromised by technical issues in the fifth round of the 2026 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.
At the wheel of the #28 Target Competition Porsche 911 Cup (992.2), the Italian-Canadian driver demonstrated a clear step forward compared to the previous round at Spa-Francorchamps, securing twelfth place in qualifying with a lap time of 1’45.508. It marked Festante’s best qualifying performance of the season in the international one-make series.
However, the progress shown over a single lap could not be converted into a race result. Shortly after the start on Sunday morning, ahead of the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, a clutch issue prevented Festante from effectively getting his race underway, forcing him into an immediate retirement.
The team will now investigate the cause of the problem while preparing for the next round at Zandvoort, aiming to build on the encouraging performance shown in Hungary.
Aldo Festante:
“It was a weekend where we definitely took a step forward in terms of pace, but once again we were held back by technical issues. Although we showed much better speed, we simply couldn’t turn that into a result. We now need to investigate exactly what happened with the clutch, because it prevented us from even getting our race started. The positive takeaway is undoubtedly our qualifying performance, which was our strongest of the Supercup season so far. That confirms we’re moving in the right direction and making progress, but of course we can’t be satisfied because, once again, we weren’t able to capitalise on our potential. Now our focus shifts to Zandvoort. We’ll keep working to make another step forward in terms of performance and, as far as possible, eliminate the technical issues. Hopefully we’ll finally be able to translate our pace into the result we know we’re capable of achieving.”