Richard Verschoor, Trident
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Formula 2 served up an Hungarian sprint race treat as drivers opted to use a mix of soft and hard tyres, but it was Richard Verschoor who mastered the madness.
Starting from pole, Trident driver Verschoor ran the harder compound, a decision that was mirrored by fellow front-row incumbent Kush Maini (Invicta).
Promoted to de facto third on the grid when Zane Maloney (Rodin) stalled ahead of the formation lap, Andrea Kimi Antonelli was the first driver on the soft rubber, a decision that enabled him to quickly assume the lead following an elbows-out battle with Verschoor.
But the Prema driver had gone too hard too soon, and paid the price on lap 17 of 28 when his tyres hit the cliff, he lost performance and dropped out of the top order with a whimper. A switch to hard tyres for the closing laps allowed him recover to 15th, but that was scant consolation.
Having been under pressure from Maini before passing Antonelli, Verschoor put any fear of defeat to rest by slowly pulling out a margin on his rival, moving clear of the DRS threat to allow a comfortable cruise to the flag.
The only driver who was able to truly make the soft tyre work was Victor Martins (ART), who finished third but with the canvas showing on his front right through the final corners.
The move of the race came late on as Oliver Bearman (Prema) battled to limp home on his softs, with the two DAMS cars of Juan Manuel Correa and Jak Crawford going either side of him around Turns 2 and 3, with the trio narrowly avoiding contact in the latter corner as they all ran wide.
On hard tyres, championship leader Isack Hadjar (Campos) climbed from eighth on the grid to take fourth, with his chief rival Paul Aron (Hitech) finishing seventh.
As rain began to fall on the final laps, the second half of the order was a battle royale with a combination of slowing drivers on old soft rubber, those who had stopped for fresh hards, and some who had started but struggled on hards.
With positions changing corner by corner, Ritomo Miyata (Rodin) put his car in all of the right places to finish 13th, ahead of a recovering Maloney in 14th. Gabriel Bortoleto’s championship hopes took a blow in 17th as, like Antonelli, he had been forced to stop having started on softs.
Hadjar now leads the standings by 27 points, extending his margin by three points.
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Source: Autosport