Vandoorne flies to victory in Budapest

McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne delighted both ART and his F1 supporters with a crushing display of dominance in this morning’s sprint race in Budapest, taking the lead at the start and pulling away over the next 28 laps to easily lead home title rivals Jolyon Palmer and Williams tester Felipe Nasr to put himself third in the drivers’ standings.

The result was set up when the lights went out: Vandoorne had a solid start from P2 to edge into the lead despite a great start from Nasr, who followed the Belgian through poleman Nathanael Berthon at turn one with Daniel Abt, Palmer, yesterday’s winner Arthur Pic, Conor Daly (courtesy of a tremendous start from P13) and Marco Sorensen behind them.

Palmer was showing his customary raciness, clinically dispatching Abt at turn one next time by and then holding off a strong fight back, and dispatching Berthon in the same manner a few laps later, with Adrian Quaife-Hobbs echoing the move on Sorensen just behind them. The Series leader was then on Nasr’s tail and was clearly not in a mood to hang about: he dived up the inside despite the Brazilian’s best efforts, returning the love on the exit and was through for P2.

Unfortunately for most of the other drivers, the usual problems with overtaking on the tight, technical circuit meant that, despite most of the field circulating nose to tail, there didn’t appear to be any way to get by, particularly as they were trying as much as possible to save their tires to get to the flag.

But Vandoorne had no such problems: the Belgian ran at his own pace, setting fastest lap on the final tour to win at a cantor from Palmer, who was struggling with his tires in the closing laps but just held off Nasr for P2. Behind them Berthon drove a strong race to hold off almost race long pressure from Abt for P4, with Pic resisting pressure from Daly for more points for 6th after a tremendous weekend for the Frenchman, and Quaife-Hobbs rounding out the points paying positions.

Palmer leads Nasr by 192 points to 149 as the grid departs for the summer break, with Vandoorne up to third with 109 points ahead of Cecotto on 100, Coletti on 96, Evans on 92 and Pic on 70 points. DAMS lead the way in the teams’ title from Carlin, 233 points to 215, with ART Grand Prix on 135, Racing Engineering on 125 and Trident on 122 as the grid takes a break before returning at Spa Francorchamps in a month’s time.

Budapest – Sprint Race
Pos Driver Team
1. Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix
2. Jolyon Palmer DAMS
3. Felipe Nasr Carlin
4. Nathanael Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus
5. Daniel Abt Hilmer Motorsport
6. Arthur Pic Campos Racing
7. Conor Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus
8. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Rapax
9. Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering
10. Mitch Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME
11. Marco Sorensen MP Motorsport
12. Stéphane Richelmi DAMS
13. Simon Trummer Rapax
14. Rene Binder Arden International
15. Julian Leal Carlin
16. Jon Lancaster Hilmer Motorsport
17. Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport
18. Rio Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing
19. Tom Dillmann EQ8 Caterham Racing
20. Artem Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME
21. Takuya Izawa ART Grand Prix

Not Classified
Kimiya Sato Campos Racing
Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering
Andre Negrao Arden International
Johnny Cecotto Trident

Fastest Lap: Stoffel Vandoorne (ART Grand Prix) – 1:32.541 on lap 28