Fornaroli grows F2 title advantage by leading home Stanek in Hungary

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Leonardo Fornaroli extended his Formula 2 points lead in the Hungaroring feature race with a third win from three rounds.

He trailed Invicta Racing team-mate Roman Stanek through the first stint on soft compound tyres, then overcut him. A lock-up as he entered the pitlane meant he exceeded its speed limit and copped a five-second penalty, but was able to negate it with his pace on medium compound tyres.

Eight drivers took the rolling start on mediums, with Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) and Arvid Lindblad (Campos Racing) the highest placed of those on the grid’s fourth row.

It went wrong for Martins first, with two offs in four laps before retiring on lap nine. That caused a virtual safety car period, with Rodin Motorsport’s Amaury Cordeel having instigated an earlier one.

Poleman Stanek kept his lead at around two seconds either side of these interruptions, and Hitech GP’s Luke Browning got past DAMS’ Jak Crawford for third on lap four but then braked too late at turn three and was back behind.

They were followed by Joshua Duerksen (AIX Racing), Oliver Goethe (MP Motorsport), Lindblad, Alex Dunne (Rodin), Pepe Marti (Campos) and Richard Verschoor (MP). Lindblad overtook Duerksen and Goethe after the first restart, and an off for Duerksen at turn one meant he dropped behind Goethe too.

Marti lost out to fellow medium-shod runner Verschoor, and on the second restart Goethe went off at turn 13 trying to overtake Lindblad and was passed by Dunne and Duerksen.

Lindblad had a big pace advantage, and those around him began to pit on lap 14 of 37. Stanek headed in on lap 15, with Fornaroli following a lap later.

That left Lindblad with a lead of nearly five seconds over Marti, with Verschoor far back in third. Fornaroli rejoined well clear of Stanek, leading the pitters in eighth.

Lindblad’s pace advantage dissapeared on lap 22 as track conditions improved, and he pitted a lap later. Verschoor had suffered a slow stop on lap 22, and Marti headed in on lap 24. Campos’s drivers had terrible outlaps, with Marti losing four places.

Hitech’s Dino Beganovic pitted from the lead on lap 25, and DAMS’ Kush Maini did so on lap 27. Finally there was ART GP’s Ritomo Miyata, who had run at the back but was now setting personal bests in the lead and hoping for a safety car.

He stayed out to lap 35, but Fornaroli passed him five laps earlier and the race ran green to the end so he finished 18th.

Lindblad and Marti lost further positions later, but Lindblad got back ahead of Goethe on lap 27.

Crawford attempted overtaking Stanek on lap 28 but locked up and had to settle for what would become third, Verschoor was a lonely fifth and on his soft stint Beganovic made several passes to come just shy of Lindblad in seventh and set the fastest lap. Maini showed strong pace after pitting to complete a climb from 19th to 11th.

Race results (37 laps)