Trident’s Richard Verschoor won a strategic Formula 2 sprint race dominated by tyre management at the Hungaroring
The Dutchman started from reversed-grid pole on hard compound tyres but slipped behind Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli who led before his soft tyres fell apart at the halfway stage.
Antonelli lined from fourth but had one less car to worry about in front of him, as fellow second-row starter Zane Maloney stalled at the beginning of the formation lap and was forced to start the race from the pitlane.
Verschoor led into turn one from fellow hard-shod runner Kush Maini, the but the duo immediately came under attack from Antonelli. Having swept past Invicta Racing’s Maini into turn one, the Ferrari F1 junior immediately applied pressure on Verschoor. Antonelli eventually squeezed by at the start of lap four, and built more than a two-second lead over the next few laps.
But his tyres then started to fade, and by lap 13 of 28 he had been caught by both Verschoor and Maini. Antonelli locked up and ran wide on two occasions and, after Verschoor snatched the lead into turn one, the Italian ran wide and slipped to third before losing further ground and then pitting for fresh tyres.
Verschoor remained ahead until the finish to win by 1.5s from Maini, with ART Grand Prix’s the highest finisher on soft tyres in third. Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar extended his points lead by coming home fourth, the Red Bull junior having ran eighth early on before moving up the order as his hard tyres came into their own.
Rodin’s Enzo Fittipaldi climbed to fourth early on ahead of fellow soft-shod runners Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta), but Fittipaldi was eventually forced to pit with a puncture while Bortoleto also hit tyre trouble and tumbled to 17th.
Hauger was able to manage his tyres and finish fifth ahead of team-mate Franco Colapinto who made up ground on hard tyres late on. Also running the hard compound, Hitech GP’s title contender Paul Aron slipped back four places to 14th early on before recovering to seventh ahead of AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard.
Prema’s Ollie Bearman was passed by Barnard late on as his tyres faded, and also lost out in a three-wide battle into turn three with DAMS duo Juan Manuel Correa and Jak Crawford before coming home 11th.
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
