Race report
FIA F2 Hungaroring
F2 Hungary: Antonelli victorious as Hadjar and Aron stumble
Antonelli scored his second Formula 2 race win in as many weekends with title rivals Aron and Hadjar stumbling
Sam Hall
Edited: Jul 21, 2024, 12:18 PM
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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing
Photo by: Prema Powerteam
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.
Hungaroring - Feature race
Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info
1
-
4
Main Information Additional Data
1
-
2
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Bonus 1
A. Kimi Prema Powerteam
4 36
1:02'46.691
150.698 1 25 1 2 V. Martins ART Grand Prix 1 36
+12.528
1:02'59.219
12.528 150.198 1 18 3 R. Verschoor Trident 22 36
+13.355
1:03'00.046
0.827 150.165 1 15 4
G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing
10 36
+14.819
1:03'01.510
1.464 150.107 1 12 5 E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing 14 36
+18.516
1:03'05.207
3.697 149.961 1 10 6 D. Hauger MP Motorsport 11 36
+19.179
1:03'05.870
0.663 149.934 1 8 7 K. Maini Invicta Racing 9 36
+20.270
1:03'06.961
1.091 149.891 1 6 8 R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport 6 36
+20.498
1:03'07.189
0.228 149.882 1 4 9
T. Barnard PHM AIX Racing
25 36
+21.193
1:03'07.884
0.695 149.855 1 2 10 R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing 15 36
+23.310
1:03'10.001
2.117 149.771 1 1 11 R. Staněk Trident 23 36
+24.882
1:03'11.573
1.572 149.709 2 12
P. Martí Campos Racing
21 36
+26.705
1:03'13.396
1.823 149.637 2 13 F. Colapinto MP Motorsport 12 36
+28.408
1:03'15.099
1.703 149.570 1 14 Z. O'Sullivan ART Grand Prix 2 36
+31.105
1:03'17.796
2.697 149.463 1 15 O. Bearman Prema Powerteam 3 36
+31.507
1:03'18.198
0.402 149.448 1 16 J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil 8 36
+31.883
1:03'18.574
0.376 149.433 2 17 J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil 7 36
+32.868
1:03'19.559
0.985 149.394 1 18 I. Hadjar Campos Racing 20 36
+33.754
1:03'20.445
0.886 149.359 1 19
J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing
24 36
+44.655
1:03'31.346
10.901 148.932 2 dnf A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight 16 21
15 laps
Accident dnf Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport 5 6
30 laps
Accident dnf
P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight
17 6
30 laps
Accident 2 View full results
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