Home Formula 3FIA F3 Championship Marcus Armstrong takes dominant first FIA F3 win at Hungaroring

Marcus Armstrong takes dominant first FIA F3 win at Hungaroring

by Ida Wood

Photo: FIA Formula 3

Marcus Armstrong became the third Prema driver to win a FIA Formula 3 race at the Hungaroring, while championship-leading team-mate Robert Shwartzman had a nightmare race.

Ferrari junior and poleman Armstrong initially came under pressure from Hitech GP’s Leonardo Pulcini, with the pair banging wheels, but he very quickly then started to pull away and stretched out a lead of 12.670 seconds by the end of the race.

Pulcini, who had taken second by cutting across Carlin’s Felipe Drugovich at the start, settled into second place after his contact with Armstrong.

Drugovich meanwhile had to work hard to defend his third place from title contenders Shwartzman and Juri Vips (Hitech GP) during the first half of the race. Eventually Shwartzman ran out of patience and attempted a move, but he ended up making contact and Drugovich ended up with a puncture.

Also receiving damage was Shwartzman, who was quickly passed by Vips, ART Grand Prix’s Max Fewtrell and HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes. Fewtrell then had a problem of his own and fell the down the order, while Shwartzman retired his car.

This left a new battle for third between Vips and Hughes, which was decided conclusively in the latter’s favour.

Feature race winner Christian Lundgaard ended up taking fifth, avoiding the drama ahead, and just holding off Yuki Tsunoda.

Having missed out on the points in the feature race, Prema’s Jehan Daruvala rose from 11th to finish seventh, but it is Vips who is Shwartzman’s closest rival now.

 

Race results (22 laps)
Pos Name Team Time
1 Marcus Armstrong Prema 35m26.061s
2 Leonardo Pulcini Hitech GP +12.670s
3 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab +18.984s
4 Juri Vips Hitech GP +24.401s
5 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix +25.564s
6 Yuki Tsunoda Jenzer Motorsport +25.889s
7 Jehan Daruvala Prema +29.557s
8 Logan Sargeant Carlin +37.297s
9 Liam Lawson MP Motorsport +38.326s
10 Bent Viscaal HWA Racelab +39.726s
11 Devlin DeFrancesco Trident +42.535s
12 Niko Kari Trident +44.271s
13 Fabio Scherer Sauber Junior Team by Charouz +44.730s
14 Keyvan Andres HWA Racelab +45.752s
15 Andreas Estner Jenzer Motorsport +46.061s
16 Alex Peroni Campos Racing +47.164s
17 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport +47.437s
18 Simo Laaksonen MP Motorsport +48.276s
19 David Beckmann ART Grand Prix +48.515s
20 Lirim Zendeli Sauber Junior Team by Charouz +49.061s
21 Giorgio Carrara Jenzer Motorsport +53.521s
22 Yifei Ye Hitech GP +56.636s
23 Sebastian Fernandez Campos Racing +58.296s
24 Max Fewtrell ART Grand Prix +58.550s
25 Raoul Hyman Sauber Junior Team by Charouz +1m04.567s
26 Alessio Deledda Campos Racing +1m06.260s
27 Pedro Piquet Trident +1m11.427s
Ret Robert Shwartzman Prema
Ret Felipe Drugovich Carlin
Ret Teppei Natori Carlin
Fastest lap: Armstrong, 1m35.307s

Championship Standings
1
?Shwartzman 124? ?2 Vips 112? ?3?Daruvala 104? ?4 Armstrong 98? ?5?Lundgaard 73? ?6?Hughes 56? ?7?Fewtrell 55? ?8?Pulcini 53? ?9?Piquet 43? ?10?Lawson 22