Antonelli storms to his first F2 feature race win at Hungaroring

Photo: Prema

Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli capitalised on a late safety car period to win Formula 2’s Hungaroring feature race.

Starting the race on an alternate strategy, Antonelli came from behind after making his mandatory pitstop during a safety car period to deny ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins. Trident’s Richard Verschoor, who lost victory in Saturday’s sprint race, also benefitted from the late intervention to snatch third.

There was drama before the race even started. Campos Racing’s points leader Isack Hadjar, who was due to line up from third, failed to make it out in time as the cars headed to the grid and had to start from the pitlane.

His chief rival Paul Aron started from pole, but it was Martins who led into turn one after making a lightning getaway from fifth. Aron found himself sandwiched between Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi and Virtuosi Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto, and the Hitech GP driver locked up and ran wide into the first corner, tumbling to seventh.

A mistake at the end of lap two left Martins under pressure from Fittipaldi, but he remained ahead despite the pair going side-by-side through the first three corners of lap three.

Starting the race on the hard compound tyre, Antonelli prevailed in wheel-to-wheel battle to snatch fourth from Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney at turn 10.

The squabble allowed Dennis Hauger and Aron to close in, with Hauger trying to pass Maloney into turn one. Aron pounced on the exit to draw alongside the MP Motorsport driver into turn two but he then tagged the rear of Maloney’s car, resulting in both spinning out and the safety car being deployed.

Having built a two-second lead, Martins made his mandatory stop and switched from soft to hard tyres, rejoining in fourth behind Antonelli, Verschoor and Virtuosi’s Kush Maini.

Bortoleto passed Fittipaldi at the restart, but the Brazilian lost five seconds over the next few laps to Martins as he battled past the still-to-pit Amaury Cordeel (Hitech) and Ritomo Miyata (Rodin). Martins meanwhile picked off Maini and Verschoor to run second behind Antonelli, who led by six seconds.

But there was to be another twist when Cordeel crashed heavily on the exit of turn four and brought out the safety car for a second time. Antonelli dived into the pits to switch to soft tyres and rejoined in fifth.

The Italian immediately moved past Hauger and Fittipaldi into third at the restart, and used his fresh tyres to pass Bortoleto and Martins into turn one over the next couple of laps before pulling clear to win by 12.5 seconds. Verschoor also made his mandatory stop during the safety car period before charging up to third with a final lap pass on Bortoleto.

Fittipaldi finished fifth ahead of Hauger, and Maini edged Miyata to seventh. AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard came home ninth ahead of VAR’s Rafael Villagomez, while Hadjar failed to score in 18th.

Race results (36 laps)