Home Featured Christian Lundgaard takes Formula Renault Eurocup lead with race two win in Hungary

Christian Lundgaard takes Formula Renault Eurocup lead with race two win in Hungary

by Bethonie Waring

Lundgaard

Christian Lundgaard reclaimed the Formula Renault Eurocup championship lead with his third victory of the season at the Hungaroring.

Lundgaard made a strong getaway from pole in damp conditions and was untroubled for the remainder of the race.

He?d managed to build a comfortable gap to second placed Max Fewtrell when, four minutes before the chequered flag, the safety car was brought out to clear Thomas Neubauer?s stranded car.

The incident put Fewtrell and Lorenzo Colombo in third within touching distance of the race victory, but the clock ticked down to zero before the track was cleared and Lundgaard remained unchallenged.

Behind him, title rival Yefei Ye struggled on the opening lap. After a difficult qualifying, Ye dropped from 10th?on the grid to 13th?on lap one. He managed to pick up a handful of positions as the race wore on, but was still outside the points when the safety car came out.

Eleventh for Ye means Lundgaard moves into the championship lead, leaving Hungary eight points ahead of the Josef Kaufmann Racing driver with just three rounds remaining.

The main battle in the closing stages of the race was the four-way fight for the final podium position.

After jumping from ninth on the grid to third, Alex Peroni was forced to put up a strong defence from Logan Sargeant. Oscar Piastri and Colombo soon joined the fight, which was allowing Lundgaard and Fewtrell to escape up the road.

Colombo ran wide around the outside of Sargeant to take fourth and was immediately on Peroni?s tail. The pair ran side by side but Peroni couldn?t keep the JD Motorsport driver behind him. Another move around the outside promoted Colombo into third, where he would finish to take his fourth podium of the season.

Piastri managed to pass Peroni just before the safety car was brought out to take fourth, while a spin for Sargeant dropped the American racer back to seventh. Peroni finished fifth, ahead of Alexander Smolyar.

Arthur Rougier, Victor Martins, and Sami Taoufik completed the top 10, with the 2017 European karting champion Taoufik scoring his maiden Eurocup point.

 

Race results
Pos Name Team Time
1 Christian Lundgaard MP Motorsport 16 laps
2 Max Fewtrell R-ace GP +0.451s
3 Lorenzo Colombo JD Motorsport +1.087s
4 Oscar Piastri Arden +1.511s
5 Alex Peroni MP Motorsport +2.102s
6 Alexander Smolyar Tech 1 Racing +2.568s
7 Logan Sargeant R-ace GP +3.383s
8 Arthur Rougier Fortec Motorsports +3.980s
9 Victor Martins R-ace GP +4.322s
10 Sami Taoufik Arden +5.239s
11 Yifei Ye Josef Kaufmann Racing +5.634s
12 Charles Milesi R-ace GP +6.542s
13 Frank Bird Tech 1 Racing +7.512s
14 Neil Verhagen Tech 1 Racing +9.918s
15 Axel Matus AVF +11.021s
16 Vladimir Tziortzis Fortec Motorsports +11.565s
17 Nikita Volegov Arden +12.415s
18 Najiy Razak JD Motorsport +13.083s
19 Douried Ghattas Anders Motorsport +13.584s
20 Gabriel Gandulia R-ace GP +16.430s
21 Eliseo Martinez AVF +17.098s
22 Clement Novalak Josef Kaufmann Racing +17.312s
23 Phill Hill Anders Motorsport +17.979s
24 Freek Schothorst MP Motorsport +18.744s
25 Thomas Maxwell JD Motorsport +19.083s
Ret Thomas Neubauer Tech 1 Racing
Ret Raul Guzman Fortec Motorsports
Ret Christian Munoz AVF
Fastest Lap: Lundgaard, 1m56.637s

Eurocup standings
1
?Lundgaard 190? ?2?Ye 182? ?3?Fewtrell 158.5? ?4 Martins 141? ?5?Colombo 117.5? ?6?Sargeant 116? ?7?Milesi 85.5? ?8?Peroni 75? ?9 Piastri 71? ?10?Maxwell 46

Northern European Cup standings
1?Ghattas? ?2?Hill 146? ?3?Gandula 132? ?4?Sargeant 87? ?5 Martins 83? ?6?Peroni 60? ?7?Neubauer 58? ?8?Milesi 57? ?9 Bird 52? ?10 Lundgaard 48