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F2 Hungary: Antonelli victorious as Hadjar and Aron stumble

Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli backed up his success in the Formula 2 Silverstone sprint contest with his maiden feature race success in Hungary, in a race broken by a pair of safety car interventions.

Starting in seventh as the highest-placed driver on hard tyres, Antonelli progressed to fifth in the opening exchanges but was promoted to the lead when the safety car was deployed for the first time on lap seven as polesitter Paul Aron (Hitech) collided with title rival Zane Maloney (Rodin).

Despite pulling a six-second lead, Antonelli needed a further interruption to give him any hope of taking the victory, a prayer that was answered on lap 22 when Amaury Cordeel (Hitech) crashed heavily at Turn 4.

Able to pit for soft rubber and return to the track in fifth, the Prema driver made immediate progress, passing Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport) and Enzo Fittipaldi (Van Amersfoort Racing) in a single lap, before completing his run to the front just two laps later.

Starting on pole position, Aron had entered the race as the favourite to pick up his first win of the season and close the gap to Isack Hadjar (Campos), who was expected to start in third.

This expectation grew as the cars lined up on the grid, with Campos bizarrely failing to get Hadjar out of the pitlane before the red light showed to close the exit, meaning he would have to start from the pits.

But after this moment of hope for Aron, the Estonian’s day quickly took a nosedive as a poor start saw him drop to seventh by the exit of Turn 1.

Things then got worse on lap seven, when he misjudged the pace of hard-shod Maloney at Turn 2 and made contact with the rear of the Rodin, sending himself into a spin and causing both cars to retire.

In the meantime, Hadjar had been making progress and benefitted from a cheap stop under the safety car to switch onto hard tyres. But this was undone by the second intervention, which saw him swamped by those who had enjoyed an equally cheap stop for softs late on, meaning he finished 18th.

Handing Hadjar an early advantage for the upcoming Spa weekend, Aron later received a pair of five-place grid penalties for the Belgian sprint race - one for forcing Oliver Bearman (Prema) off the track and another for causing the collision with Maloney. 

Victor Martins (ART) was second after a flying start from fifth to the lead by the first corner, with Richard Verschoor (Trident) third after following the same strategy as Antonelli and displacing Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta) for the final podium position on the last lap.

As a result of the problems of those at the top of the table, Antonelli climbed from ninth to sixth in the drivers’ standings and lies 55 points off the top spot.

Hadjar remains at the top of the standings, with his 18-point lead over Aron unchanged. Bortoleto past Maloney climbs to third, 30 points back.

Hungary Hungaroring - Feature race

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Bonus
1 Italy A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam 4 36

-

    1      
2 France V. Martins ART Grand Prix 1 36

+12.500

12.5

12.500   1      
3 Netherlands R. Verschoor Trident 22 36

+13.300

13.3

0.800   1      
4
G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing
10 36

+14.800

14.8

1.500   1      
5 Brazil E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing 14 36

+18.500

18.5

3.700   1      
6 Norway D. Hauger MP Motorsport 11 36

+19.100

19.1

0.600   1      
7 India K. Maini Invicta Racing 9 36

+20.200

20.2

1.100   1      
8 Japan R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport 6 36

+20.400

20.4

0.200   1      
9
T. Barnard PHM AIX Racing
25 36

+21.100

21.1

0.700   1      
10 Mexico R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing 15 36

+23.300

23.3

2.200   1      
11 Czech Republic R. Staněk Trident 23 36

+24.800

24.8

1.500   2      
12
P. Martí Campos Racing
21 36

+26.700

26.7

1.900   2      
13 Argentina F. Colapinto MP Motorsport 12 36

+28.400

28.4

1.700   1      
14 United Kingdom Z. O'Sullivan ART Grand Prix 2 36

+31.100

31.1

2.700   1      
15 United Kingdom O. Bearman Prema Powerteam 3 36

+31.500

31.5

0.400   1      
16 United States J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil 8 36

+31.800

31.8

0.300   2      
17 United States J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil 7 36

+32.800

32.8

1.000   1      
18 France I. Hadjar Campos Racing 20 36

+33.700

33.7

0.900   1      
19
J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing
24 36

+34.600

34.6

0.900   2      
dnf Belgium A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight 16 21

15 laps

        Accident  
dnf Barbados Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport 5 6

30 laps

        Accident  
dnf
P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight
17 6

30 laps

        Accident  
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