Written by Sean McKean
On Sunday morning, Nikola Tsolov fended off his teammate to take his first feature race victory at the Hungaroring. It was the Bulgarian’s third victory of the season.
As it unfolded
From pole, Laurens van Hoepen got a good launch, but teammate Tsolov got one better and took the lead out of Turn 2. Although the Dutchman briefly fell behind Noel León, he took second back.
With laps ticking by, van Hoepen radioed to his team regarding tyre temperatures as he followed behind his Bulgarian teammate. Despite the increasing mishandling of his car, he managed to pull out of DRS range from the Van Amersfoort driver behind him.
Now with only three laps remaining, van Hoepen got control of his tyres again and started to apply pressure to Tsolov ahead. But on Lap 21, the race was neutralised.
Coming out of Turn 3, Matías Zagazeta and Arvid Lindblad came together on the straight. Lindblad crashed into the wall while Zagazeta went out with a puncture. Subsequently, the safety car came out.
This meant Tsolov hung on to take his third victory of the season. Although van Hoepen finished second on-track, his later disqualification meant that Noel León inherited the second. Leonardo Fornaroli was then promoted to the final podium spot. Christian Mansell finished fourth to take home solid points. Rounding out the top five was Santiago Ramos.
Classification:
Nikola Tsolov (ART Grand Prix)
Noel León (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident)
Christian Mansell (ART Grand Prix)
Santiago Ramos (Trident)
Callum Voisin (Rodin Motorsport)
Nikita Bedrin (AIX Racing)
Oliver Goethe (Campos Racing)
Dino Beganovic (Prema Racing)
Mari Boya (Campos Racing)
Gabriele Minì (Prema Racing)
Luke Browning (Hitech GP)
Martinius Stenshorne (Hitech GP)
Tasanapol Inthraphuvask (AIX Racing)
Max Esterson (Jenzer Motorsport)
Alex Dunne (MP Motorsport)
Cian Shields (Hitech GP)
Kacper Sztuka (MP Motorsport)
Sebastian Montoya (Campos Racing)
Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport)
Piotr Wiśnicki (Rodin Motorsport)
Joshua Dufek (AIX Racing)
Sophia Floersch (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Tommy Smith (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Sami Meguetounif (Trident) [FL]
Joseph Loake (Rodin Motorsport) +1 lap
Matías Zagazeta (Jenzer Motorsport) +3 laps
Arvid Lindblad (Prema Racing) +3 laps
Charlie Wurz (Jenzer Motorsport) [DNF]
Laurens van Hoepen (ART Grand Prix) [DSQ]
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