Christian Lundgaard ends wait for first FIA F3 win with dominant Hungaroring display

After being denied victory in the first ever FIA Formula 3 Championship race, Christian Lundgaard finally returned to the podium by winning the Hungaroring feature race.

The ART Grand Prix took pole and fastest lap too on the way to a 3.712 second success over team-mate Max Fewtrell.

Two of Lungaard’s biggest victory threats, Hitech GP’s Juri Vips and Prema’s championship leader Robert Shwartzman, both had poor starts and promoted Trident’s Niko Kari to third as they fell down the order.

Vips recovered to pressure Kari for the final podium spot, as Lundgaard and Fewtrell drove away up front. In the second half of the race, the battle for third heated up and HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes started to get involved.

A lock-up by Kari meant he and Vips went side-by-side on lap 14 of 22, but the former held on to his position for several more laps. Another lock-up on lap 19 preceded Vips and Hughes getting past, and they were swiftly followed by Shwartzman.

With two laps to go, Hughes successfully completed a move on Vips, ensuring that each of the top three were second-time visitors to the podium.

After passing Shwartzman at the start, Carlin’s Felipe Drugovich ended up finishing sixth behind the Russian as Kari slid down the order. Drugovich’s fellow Euroformula Open champion Leonardo Pulcini ended up one spot behind in seventh.

Shwartzman’s Prema team-mates and title rivals Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala both ended up outside the top 10 in qualifying, but only Armstrong was able to score points in the race.

Despite also having a poor start, Daruvala recovered from 19th to be challenging Armstrong for 12th by the closing stages of the race, and the pair continued to make places as others struggled with tyres.

Armstrong ended up finishing eighth after passing Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda, while Daruvala was denied the final point by Carlin’s Logan Sargeant on the final lap. As a result, the Indian has now slipped behind Vips as Shwartzman’s closest challenger in the standings.

Race results (22 laps)