Pepe Martí took a hard-fought third victory of the season at the Hungarian GP Sprint Race, fending off Alex Dunne late on.
Saturday’s F2 Hungarian GP Sprint Race saw grid places reversed for those who finished P1 to P10 in Qualifying, with Pepe Martí and Alex Dunne leading the field away. Drivers’ Championship rivals Leonardo Fornaroli, Roman Staněk, and Richard Verschoor started together in P9, P10, and P11 respectively. Luke Browning, who impressed in Practice, started the Sprint in P7.
Martí’s victory sees him close the gap on his Drivers’ Championship rivals, while Fornaroli and Verschoor see their advantage shortened.
Lights out
Unlike last season, drivers had the choice of using the medium compound for this year’s Hungarian GP Sprint Race, and gleefully obliged. All drivers navigated the formation lap successfully, and the field embarked on the short sprint to Turn 1 and 28 laps of racing.
Polesitter Martí had an excellent start and remained uncontested through Turn, while Arvin Lindblad from P3 went around the outside of Dunne at Turn 1 to form a Campos 1-2. Gabriele Mini tagged Stanek and caused a spin for the Invicta man at Turn 9, but Sunday’s polesitter was able to continue in P22 – and thus ended a calm first lap for most.
It was an electric start for Verschoor, who managed to make his way past Mini, Beganovic, and teammate Oliver Goethe to put himself in P8. Stanek, looking to embark on a difficult recovery drive, made his way past Max Esterson at the final corner to move into P20. On the other hand, Joshua Durksen had a terrible start and found himself falling to P12 from P6.
As the rest of the field settled, Stanek continued his charge by clearing Cian Sheilds and setting the fastest lap. For the earlier collision, Mini was handed a 10-second penalty.
Lindblad, using DRS, set the fastest lap and had a look into Turn 1 on lap 7, but Martí saw off his challenge. The next lap, a late send from Lindblad gives him the lead at Turn 1, but great fighting from Martí sees him regain the lead at Turn 3. However, the infighting at Campos allowed Dunne and Victor Martins to involve themselves in the battle for the lead.
As the field settled
As the battling continued between the Campos drivers, Martí complained on the radio of its necessity. While the rest of the field settled into the race, the infighting caused tyre overuse for both drivers – and Lindblad was reminded of such over the radio.
The stewards issued a 5-second time penalty to John Bennett for forcing Sebastian Montoya off the track at Turn 1, but the Van Amersfoort man was down in P13 anyway.
As the race ticked over the midway point, most drivers looked to have settled into tyre management mode, with most of the field connected by DRS. However, the yellow flag waved on lap 16 after contact between Amaury Cordeel and Rafael Villagómez, which caused Villagómez to lose a front wing endplate.
Prema made the decision to pit Mini on lap 18, giving the Italian new soft tyres and wiping his 10-second penalty. Choosing to serve the penalty removed the risk of Mini having to serve the penalty during Sunday’s Feature Race
Dunne made a fantastic move on Lindblad during lap 19, leaving a Turn 1 dive late to the inside of the Campos man. Immediately, Dunne set his sights on race leader Martí. In an exciting battle for P3, Martins pushed Lindblad to the limit through the first sector, before good defence from Lindblad allowed Jak Crawford to steal P4 from Martins.
All the racing left Lindblad nearly four seconds behind Dunne in P2, and the Campos man’s tyres seemed to have fallen off a cliff. Crawford challenged him on lap 21, but Lindblad’s firm defence caused a queue of around 10 drivers to form behind.
Safety car deployed
Montoya pulled over on the start/finish straight, and a safety car was immediately deployed. As the safety car led the field around the circuit, a tractor was on track to remove Montoya’s car. The tractor caused the pit entry to close, meaning drivers could not box for soft tyres.
In a bizarre incident on the start/finish straight, Martí seemed to be over-delta and hit the brakes aggressively, causing Dunne to take avoiding action.
The pit lane closure means that all-but-Mini were on the medium tyres, so the progress of the Prema man was something to keep an eye on over the last few laps. For the rest of the field, earlier tyre management was key to their race finish.
A sprint to the line
The safety car ended on lap 25, leaving a three lap sprint to the end of the race. All eyes were on Martí vs Dunne, while Lindblad defended P3 for his life and created a gap to the leaders.
Browning sent a fantastic dive to the inside of Martins for P5 at Turn 1, while Lindblad fought valiently to hold off Crawford and keep P3 on lap 26 and 27. Fornaroli had a massive lockup at Turn 1, but Verschoor was unable to capitalise and the pair remained P7 and P8.
Lindblad’s defence could not last forever, and Crawford got ahead of him before Turn 1 and held the position under breaking, before holding P3 through Turn 2.
Martí came under immense pressure from Dunne through the final sector, with Dunne right behind the Red Bull junior. The pair continued fighting through the final corners, alongside each other until Dunne was forced wide at the exit of Turn 13. The battle concluded with Martí crossing the line just two tenths ahead of Dunne, taking victory at the Hungaroring.
F2 Hungarian GP Sprint Race Results
- Martí
- Dunne
- Crawford
- Lindblad
- Browning
- Martins
- Fornaroli
- Verschoor
- Goethe
- Beganovic
- Maini
- Durksen
- Stanek
- Mini
- Miyata
- Cordeel
- Meguetounif
- Villagómez
- Esterson
- Bennett
- Shields
- Montoya (DNF)
