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F2 Hungary: Verschoor masters madness for sprint race win

Formula 2 served up an Hungarian sprint race treat as drivers opted to use a mix of soft and hard tyres, but it was Richard Verschoor who mastered the madness.

Starting from pole, Trident driver Verschoor ran the harder compound, a decision that was mirrored by fellow front-row incumbent Kush Maini (Invicta).

Promoted to de facto third on the grid when Zane Maloney (Rodin) stalled ahead of the formation lap, Andrea Kimi Antonelli was the first driver on the soft rubber, a decision that enabled him to quickly assume the lead following an elbows-out battle with Verschoor.

But the Prema driver had gone too hard too soon, and paid the price on lap 17 of 28 when his tyres hit the cliff, he lost performance and dropped out of the top order with a whimper. A switch to hard tyres for the closing laps allowed him recover to 15th, but that was scant consolation.

Having been under pressure from Maini before passing Antonelli, Verschoor put any fear of defeat to rest by slowly pulling out a margin on his rival, moving clear of the DRS threat to allow a comfortable cruise to the flag.

The only driver who was able to truly make the soft tyre work was Victor Martins (ART), who finished third but with the canvas showing on his front right through the final corners.

The move of the race came late on as Oliver Bearman (Prema) battled to limp home on his softs, with the two DAMS cars of Juan Manuel Correa and Jak Crawford going either side of him around Turns 2 and 3, with the trio narrowly avoiding contact in the latter corner as they all ran wide.

On hard tyres, championship leader Isack Hadjar (Campos) climbed from eighth on the grid to take fourth, with his chief rival Paul Aron (Hitech) finishing seventh.

As rain began to fall on the final laps, the second half of the order was a battle royale with a combination of slowing drivers on old soft rubber, those who had stopped for fresh hards, and some who had started but struggled on hards.

With positions changing corner by corner, Ritomo Miyata (Rodin) put his car in all of the right places to finish 13th, ahead of a recovering Maloney in 14th. Gabriel Bortoleto’s championship hopes took a blow in 17th as, like Antonelli, he had been forced to stop having started on softs.

Hadjar now leads the standings by 27 points, extending his margin by three points.

Race result:

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Bonus
1 Netherlands R. Verschoor Trident 22 28

-

           
2 India K. Maini Invicta Racing 9 28

+1.500

1.5

1.500          
3 France V. Martins ART Grand Prix 1 28

+11.100

11.1

9.600          
4 France I. Hadjar Campos Racing 20 28

+16.500

16.5

5.400          
5 Norway D. Hauger MP Motorsport 11 28

+26.200

26.2

9.700          
6 Argentina F. Colapinto MP Motorsport 12 28

+27.700

27.7

1.500          
7
P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight
17 28

+34.400

34.4

6.700          
8
T. Barnard PHM AIX Racing
25 28

+39.000

39.0

4.600          
9 United States J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil 8 28

+42.400

42.4

3.400          
10 United States J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil 7 28

+50.900

50.9

8.500          
11 United Kingdom O. Bearman Prema Powerteam 3 28

+54.100

54.1

3.200          
12 Mexico R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing 15 28

+55.500

55.5

1.400          
13 Japan R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport 6 28

+56.200

56.2

0.700          
14 Barbados Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport 5 28

+56.400

56.4

0.200          
15 Italy A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam 4 28

+56.600

56.6

0.200   1      
16 Czech Republic R. Staněk Trident 23 28

+56.800

56.8

0.200          
17
G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing
10 28

+57.600

57.6

0.800   1      
18
P. Martí Campos Racing
21 28

+59.000

59.0

1.400          
19
J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing
24 28

+1'01.300

1'01.3

2.300   1      
20 United Kingdom Z. O'Sullivan ART Grand Prix 2 28

+1'06.200

1'06.2

4.900   1      
21 Belgium A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight 16 28

+1'07.400

1'07.4

1.200          
22 Brazil E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing 14 27

1 lap

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