Baumgartner Sees Chance to Stay in F1

Zsolt Baumgartner aims to win a permanent place as a Formula One driver after becoming Hungary's first in front of a home crowd today.

"It depends on my performance, but I think there is a chance for that," Baumgartner told journalists after qualifying 19th out of the 20 drivers for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring.

Baumgartner was as a last-minute replacement for Jordan's injured British driver Ralph Firman, who was ruled out after being flown to hospital with concussion and a heel injury following a huge crash in Saturday's free practice.

The 22-year-old Hungarian had taken part in private testing as Jordan's third driver on Friday but lacked a super-license.

However, the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement that the problem had been resolved after Jordan requested the substitution.

"This is a historic moment for Hungary," said Hungaroring vice-president Tamas Frank, who was instrumental in helping Baumgartner get a chance in Formula One.

"There are but 20 Formula One drivers, and for the first time in history one of those 20 is a Hungarian," he said.

Baumgartner's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was placed 13th on the grid and the young Hungarian was not quite satisfied with the qualifying session in which he could only better Minardi rookie Nicolas Kiesa.

"I would only have been fully satisfied if I could have had both Minardis behind myself, but even so I'm not dissatisfied with the position," said Baumgartner, whose Jordan team said they expect him to "finish the race, look after the car and do his best."

Gary Anderson, Jordan's director of race and test engineering, said Baumgartner could have clocked a better time had he not made the mistake of switching to fuel-saving mode on his flying lap instead of his in-lap.

"An easy mistake for a novice to make with so much going on - that possibly cost him a second," Anderson said.

Baumgartner's presence in the race, the 13th of the Championship, is likely to lead to a last-minute surge of local support. Ticket sales were currently slightly down on last year's 160,000 attendance figure for the whole weekend.

"Everyone's dream will come true now but I didn't think it would happen this soon, at our home Grand Prix," he said.