Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli extended his Formula 2 points lead with first feature race victory in Budapest.
Fornaroli finished 7.152 seconds clear of his team-mate Roman Stank at the chequered flag, a gap that was enough to overcome a 5s penalty for pitlane speeding.
Damp conditions resulted in the race beginning with a rolling start, despite all drivers fitting slick tyres. Opting for the soft compound tyres, Fornaroli ran second in the early stages behind Stanek, who built a 2s lead.
There were two virtual safety car periods during the opening 10 laps, the first due to Rodin Motorsport’s Amaury Cordeel stopping with an issue shortly after spinning, and the second caused by ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins grinding to a halt in the middle of the circuit.
Fornaroli eventually came in for his mandatory pitstop one lap later than Stanek – the pair both switching to medium tyres – and the Italian emerged in front of his team-mate with the net lead.
He was soon placed under investigation for speeding in the pitlane, and an inevitable penalty followed. At that stage, Stanek was less than a second behind him, but he started to edge clear when his team-mate came under pressure from DAMS’s Jak Crawford.
Stanek was able to keep the American at bay, as Fornaroli comfortably built enough a gap to negate his penalty and cruise home for his third win in as many rounds.
Crawford finished third, having dropped 2.5s behind Stanek in the closing stages. Hitech GP’s Luke Browning was fourth ahead of MP Motorsport’s title contender Richard Verschoor.
Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad briefly led the race ahead of team-mate Pepe Marti, the duo having started on the medium tyres and ran longer until pitting. Lindblad resisted huge pressure from Hitech’s Dino Beganovic to take sixth, while Marti came home 10th.
Oliver Goethe and Rodin’s championship protagonist Alex Dunne finished close behind Lindblad and Beganovic in eighth and ninth.
Featured image credit: Formula 2 on X
