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.

 Hungaroring - Feature race

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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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
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