Formula 2 News: Marti holds off Dunne in Hungary Sprint
Josep María Marti held off a final lap attack from Alexander Dunne to claim victory in the Budapest Sprint Race, the Campos Racing driver converting pole into a third win of the season.
The two went side-by-side through the final few corners of the last lap, but Martí defended the position to seal a trip to the top step of the podium, with Dunne ending up second. DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford pulled off a last lap overtake on Arvid Lindblad to take P3.
AS IT HAPPENED
It was a great start from pole from Martí, while Dunne was slow away from second, allowing Lindblad to get ahead of the Rodin to make it a Campos 1-2.
Further down the field, Gabriele Minì and Joshua Duerksen had been battling for P11, but the PREMA Racing driver collided with the rear of Roman Stanek, sending his rival into a spin at Turn 9.
Minì was later handed a 10-second time penalty for the incident.
The Invicta Racing driver continued on at the back of the field, but up ahead his teammate Leonardo Fornaroli lost out on sixth to Luke Browning at Turn 2 on Lap 3.
Out in front, Lindblad was 0.5s off his teammate, while Dunne was closely following the leading pair. However, the top three had pulled out a 1.7s gap on Victor Martins in P4, who was coming under pressure from Crawford.
Having set the fastest time of the race, Lindblad dived to the inside of Martí at Turn 1 on Lap 8. However, the Spaniard used the switchback nicely at Turn 2 to retake the position.
Their battling brought Dunne and Martins further into contention with the top five cars now all within DRS range of one another.
Martí and Lindblad made good starts to make it a Campos 1-2 early on
Lap 14 of 28 and Lindblad briefly lost DRS range to Martí, bringing Dunne right on to the back of his fellow rookie. However, the Campos driver fended over his advances at Turns 1 and 2.
The drivers then settled into management mode, but the top 14 drivers, from Martí to Sebastián Montoya, were all within one second of each other on Lap 16.
On to Lap 18 and PREMA brought Minì into the pit lane from P11 to serve his penalty, but also to put him on a set of Soft tyres.
At the start of Lap 19, having bided his time behind Lindblad, Dunne made a bold move at Turn 1, diving to the inside of the Briton to take P2.
Lindblad was struggling and came under attack from Martins in the opening two corners of the lap. However, the ART Grand Prix driver was forced to lift at the entry of Turn 3, allowing Crawford through for P4.
The American was right on the back of Lindblad on Lap 21, but he could not find a way through despite his attempts at Turns 1 and 2. But with the Red Bull Junior driver fighting hard for position, the top two were now 4.7s clear of the rest of the field.
The Safety Car was then deployed on Lap 22, with Montoya having stopped on track down the main straight.
With the PREMA car cleared, racing resumed on Lap 26 of 28, and on the restart, Browning overtook Martins for P5 heading into Turn 1.
Crawford was finding Lindblad tough to pass as the two went side-by-side at Turn 2, as once again the Campos driver held on to P3.
On to the final lap and with DRS activated, the DAMS driver opened his rear wing down the main straight and got ahead of Lindblad heading into Turn 1 to take third place.
Up ahead, Martí made a mistake at Turn 5, putting Dunne right on to his back as the two went wheel-to-wheel through the final sector. However, the Spaniard held off the Rodin driver across the line to take a third win of the season.
Crawford took the final spot on the podium ahead of Lindblad with Browning in fifth, Martins sixth, Fornaroli in seventh, as Richard Verschoor rounded out the points in eighth.
The top three celebrate on the podium after the race
KEY QUOTE – Josep María Martí, Campos Racing
“A victory here in Budapest. Very happy with the race, was much tighter than I would have liked on the last lap tyres started to go off quite quickly after the restart. But very happy, just managed quite well through the whole race, I knew what I was doing, apart from when Arvid sent it, but it was a good race, happy with it.”
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Leonardo Fornaroli continues to lead the way in the Drivers’ Championship on 127 points, with Richard Verschoor in second on 123. Jak Crawford and Alexander Dunne are tied on 122 points, while Luke Browning rounds out the top five on 117.
Campos Racing, now on 185 points, take over at the top of the Teams’ Standings from Invicta Racing, who are a point behind in second. Hitech TGR are third on 167 points, with DAMS Lucas Oil fourth on 148 and MP Motorsport in fifth on 140.
Hungry Formula 2 Sprint Results – 28 Laps
| Pos | Driver | Team | Behind |
| 1 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | +0.000s |
| 2 | Alex Dunne | Rodin Motorsport | +0.225s |
| 3 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | +1.964s |
| 4 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos Racing | +3.193s |
| 5 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | +3.997s |
| 6 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | +4.503s |
| 7 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta Racing | +5.116s |
| 8 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +5.271s |
| 9 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | +5.565s |
| 10 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | +5.969s |
| 11 | Kush Maini | DAMS | +7.039s |
| 12 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | +8.264s |
| 13 | Roman Stanek | Invicta Racing | +9.109s |
| 14 | Gabriele Mini | Prema | +10.564s |
| 15 | Ritomo Miyata | ART Grand Prix | +11.465s |
| 16 | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin Motorsport | +11.813s |
| 17 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | +12.524s |
| 18 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | +13.374s |
| 19 | Max Esterson | Trident | +13.820s |
| 20 | John Bennett | Van Amersfoort Racing | +13.973s |
| 21 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | +20.879s |
| Ret | Sebastian Montoya | Prema |
Fastest lap: Mini, 1m31.876s