Written by Jasmin Low
Kimi Antonelli took an impressive victory, his second of the season | Image Credit: Formula 2
Formula 2 took to the tricky Hungaroring in a spectacle of racing. Every driver was Hung-ary to score as many precious points as possible, as the championship moves into the second half of the season.
Paul Aron found himself back on top in pole position after a scoreless weekend in Silverstone, ending his streak of achieving a podium every race weekend, and allowing Isack Hadjar to reclaim the championship lead with hopes to extend it moving into the second half of the season. However, it would be Enzo Fittipaldi lining up beside Aron on the front row of the grid after a career best qualifying, looking to score points in a Feature Race for the third weekend in a row.
Saturday’s sprint race spectacle showed the best that Formula 2 has to offer, with the race being anyone’s game right until the end. It was a battle of tyre compounds, as some of the cars on the soft compound tyre had to make a pit stop- a rare event for a sprint race. Richard Verschoor was the first to take the chequered flag, but later lost his race win due to a technical infringement. Kush Maini inherited the ten precious points granted to the race winner and was to start in ninth for the main event.
The Race:
In an unexpected turn of events, Isack Hadjar was unable to make it out of the pit lane in time to line up on the grid, meaning that he would give up his third-place starting position and be forced to start from the pit lane.
As the five lights went out, Victor Martins launched himself from fifth place into the lead before the first corner, whilst Paul Aron suffered a tremendous lockup, losing six places. Oliver Bearman and Zak O’Sullivan both made up six places through the opening laps, claiming points-paying positions on the road.
Paul Aron suffered a poor race start, granting Martins the lead | Image Credit: Formula 2
As soon as DRS was enabled on the third lap, Fittipaldi and Martins entered into an intense battle for the lead, their rapid soft tyres degrading quickly, with Martins eventually moving out of DRS range of Fittipaldi, the ART Grand Prix car previously being the quickest on the softs in the sprint.
Antonelli made a bold move down the inside of Zane Maloney, the two drivers trading fourth position before Antonelli made the move stick. Almost immediately after, Aron attempted to overtake Dennis Hauger, but in doing so, Aron drove into the back of Maloney, taking both drivers out of the race and deploying a full safety car.
The soft tyre runners took advantage of the safety car to make their pit stops, leaving Kimi Antonelli first on the road. Fittipaldi came out of the pit lane with two cars between himself and Martins, needing to overtake the hard-tyre runners of Ritomo Miyata and Amaury Cordeel as racing resumed on lap ten.
Franco Colapinto was one of the few drivers remaining on the soft tyres, making an early swap for them instead of continuing on his original hard tyres, but was able to move his way through the field during the race’s middle stages. Victor Martins continued to travel through the field, whilst Gabriel Bortoleto was stuck behind Miyata, needing to pass the Japanese driver in order to avoid a battle with Fittipaldi.
On lap 19, Martins claimed second on the road, his fresher hard tyres proving useful in their battle, whilst Bortoleto made his way past Verschoor. A ten second time penalty was handed to Joshua Durksen for leaving the track and gaining an advantage on lap 20. On lap 22, Amaury Cordeel in the second Hitech found the wall, neutralising the race yet again through a safety car, and letting the drivers who had held onto the hard tyre make a pit stop whilst the field was bunched up.
A big winner from the second safety car was Kimi Antonelli, careening into the pit lane and having to brake heavily in order to scrub off the excess speed, but equipping the soft tyre and re-entering the track in fifth. Martins would lead the restart, followed by Bortoleto and Fittipaldi.
Green flags flew yet again entering into the 27th lap, Antonelli immediately overtaking Dennis Hauger and then Fittipaldi for the final podium position by turn three. The Italian was immediately on the tail of Bortoleto as the race went to time, with just under eleven minutes to go. Still charging, Antonelli had to make as many positions as possible before his tyres fell away, but Antonelli took the race lead from Martins with nine minutes to go, before escaping down the road. His teammate Oliver Bearman suffered a different fate, losing his points-paying position in another infuriating weekend for the driver destined for Formula 1 in 2025.
With just four minutes to go, Antonelli had built a near seven-second lead, whilst Richard Verschoor who was on the same strategy made his way up to fourth. As the final lap of the race began, Verschoor made a daring move on Gabriel Bortoleto to claim the final step of the podium.
Kimi Antonelli won the Feature Race, an astonishing twelve-and-a-half seconds between him and Martins, with Verschoor completing the podium. Bortoleto finished in fourth, but with none of the championship top three scoring, he was able to make a dent in the championship battle, making his way into the top three.
The Formula 2 championship travels next to the revered Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, where the championship remains anyone’s game.
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