Denis Hauger remained upfront for the entirety of the F2 Hungarian Sprint, securing his second win of the season for MP Motorsport
MP Motorsport and Denis Hauger secured a comfortable win in the F2 Hungarian Sprint, reaching the chequered flag 4.2 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Ayumu Iwasa held his own in second, taking important points for himself and DAMS. Theo Pourchaire found himself knocked off the podium by Oliver Bearman in the closing stages. Frederik Vesti’s Championship lead down was slashed to a single point with Pourchaire finishing in fourth.
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As It Happened
At lights out, Hauger got the run he needed to secure the inside line and take the lead off of Kush Maini. Iwasa was next to make up places, going around the outside of Maini up into second from fifth.
With Bearman looming large in Maini’s mirrors in fourth, he successfully knocked him out of the top three with a dive down the inside on turn six. Purchaire pushed past Jehan Daruvala for fifth just behind.Rookie Victor Martins also made up a couple of places from P9 to P7 by the end of the first lap.
On lap two, Frederik Vesti found himself slipping down to tenth. A botched overtake on Hadjar let Jack Doohan past. Maini made it back through to take third off of Bearman with a late-breaking dive down the inside on the run up to lap three.
However, tyre wear was on everyone’s minds. Tyre preservation saw a huge DRS train spanning P2 to P21 over the opening ten laps. A Virtual Safety Car ended it on lap 12 as Clément Novalak locked up into turn one. Heading straight into Ralph Boschung, the Swiss driver’s retired from the race. His car was recovered and racing continued.
On lap 13, Pourchaire took Bearman for surprise and lunged back down the inside of turn 2 to take fourth. He passed the PREMA driver just as the green flag was waved.
Iwasa Closing In
With 11 laps to go, Iwasa was given the green light to push, closing up to Hauger by eight tenths on the following lap. The gap was now at 1.9 seconds with ten laps to go.
In the final five laps, drivers were beginning to attack for those all-important points. Pourchaire made a move down the inside on turn one on Maini, with Bearman also passing Maini on the next corner.
Three laps to go now, and Bearman pulled off a late dive on Pourchaire. He had successfully moved himself up into the podium places.
Meanwhile at the front of the grid, Hauger continued his stint unchallenged in P1. Iwasa’s pace increase was not enough to take P1, but had gained him a second place. He also clinched the fastest lap of the race, while Bearman held onto third.
Daruvala came home fifth, with Maini hanging onto sixth just ahead of Martins and Hadjar. Vesti finished just outside the top eight in ninth.
Looking forward, Hauger is looking forward to tomorrow’s Feature Race after a successful sprint;
“Really happy to get the win. We had a decent start, managed to get up the inside and brake deep for Turn 1. After that it was all a game of management and pushing at the right time. But the pace was looking good and really happy to be back on the top step of the podium and I really enjoyed the race. We’ll hopefully do a good race tomorrow.”
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Featured Image by Joe Portlock – Formula 1/Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images