Prema Racing’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli took his 2nd Formula 2 victory, and first Feature win at the Hungarian F2 Feature round after an impressive ‘recovery’ drive on soft tires in the final 10 laps of the race which saw the Italian overtake 3 cars in one lap.
The other two podium spots were reserved for ART’s Victor Martins and Trident’s Richard Verschoor, who took the 3rd from Invicta’s Bortoleto in the last lap.
Before Sunday’s Feature Race FIA announced that Sprint Race winner Richard Verschoor had been stripped of his win due to illegal plank measurements, this promoted Invicta’s Kush Maini to his maiden victory, Victor Martins moved to 2nd and Campos’ Isack Hadjar to 3rd place.
Championship contenders had a day to forget with both Hungarian F2 Feature race pole-sitter Paul Aron and Zane Maloney crashing out after a contact in turn 2 thus being unable to shrink down the gap created by Isack Hadjar.
On the other hand, Hadjar ‘lost his 3rd position’ due to a team’s error that sent him out on track earlier than was regulated by the rules. Albeit, a forgettable Hungarian round outing, Hadjar’s gap stayed intact ahead of the Belgian round.
When the lights went out pole-sitter’s Aron’s horrendous start cost him 6 positions after a hefty lock-up into turn 1 that was preceded by a loss of two positions by the early leader Victor Martins and VAR’s Enzo Fittipaldi by being slightly sandwiched on the finish straight.
Hadjar’s unfortunate Feature Race mishaps proved insignificant after closest title rivals, Aron and Maloney collided and spun at turn 4 causing a Safety Car that prompted a grid to switch over to hard tires.
Early safety cars have made the Hungarian F2 Feature Race even more unpredictable as soft runners’ ‘free stop’ meant that they could push their hard tires even longer and would eventually join Hungarian F2 Feature race contention for the victory.
Starters on hard tires likes Prema’s Kimi Antonelli, Richard Verschoor and Kush Maini would need to great a significant gap to have a comfortable pitstop in the late part of the race.
Hungarian F2 Feature Race: A race against time, old vs. new hard tires
Race leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli is ‘forced’ to push his old tires to its cliff stage with Italian creating a sizeable gap of 5 seconds ahead of Trident’s Verschoor. ART’s Victor Martins is set in the best possible position as the race comes under its 50% mark.
Frenchman who had already stopped in the race passed both Kush Maini and then, a couple of laps later, Richard Verschoor in a direct battle for 3rd and 2nd place, respectively.
As it stands battle for the Hungarian F2 Feature race win will be contested between Kimi Antonelli and Victor Martins. Specifically interesting for the race’s unfolding is the awaited battle between Martins on long-preserved hard tires and Andrea Kimi Antonelli on fresh and quick soft tires.
Cordeel’s massive shunt in turn 4 offers Andrea Kimi Antonelli a free stop by putting on soft tires with 14 laps to go.
The severity of an incident that took out Hitech’s driver saw Safety Car out on track longer than expected letting both soft and hard runners preserve their grip levels to a minimum.
Race restart and Antonelli’s hunt on Martins
On the race restart Antonelli rapidly dispatches Hauger, Fittipaldi, and Bortoleto in the first race-action lap back quickly setting his sights on race leader Victor Martins.
As the countdown timer appeared on a live-timing, Antonelli easily overtakes Martins with just 9 minutes to go and builds a humongous gap of over 2 seconds within a couple of corners.
Antonelli was able to cruise calmly to the checkered flag with over 12.5 seconds of lead ahead of Martins and Bortoleto who were caught in the battle with each other. Bortoleto, however, lost podium spot after his tires gave up in battle with Richard Verschoor.