Doohan dominates in Hungary as Vesti extends F2 points lead

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan took a lights-to-flag victory in Formula 2’s feature race at the Hungaroring, while Frederik Vesti extended his points lead.

Alpine junior Doohan finished 9.1 seconds ahead of Vesti for his first win of 2023, while Theo Pourchaire lost ground in the title race by finishing sixth.

Doohan made a great start from pole to give himself a clear lead immediately, and Vesti passed Victor Martins for second despite the pair making contact at turn one.

The gap between Doohan and Vesti ebbed and flowed at around one second in the early laps before Doohan edged clear, the Australian building a five-second lead and taking his soft compound tyres all the way to the end of lap 24 of 37.

After switching to the medium tyres during his mandatory pitstop, Doohan emerged with an increased advantage of six seconds on Vesti – who had made his own pitstop two laps earlier – and then pulled further clear in the remaining laps.

A slow tyre change left Vesti initially under pressure from chief rival Pourchaire, who had been the first of the leading runners to make his pitstop on lap 15 from fourth place.

Martins pitted one lap later than Vesti and briefly emerged ahead, and Vesti swept by with a better exit out of turn one. Pourchaire’s attempts to also pass Martins were denied when his ART Grand Prix team-mate closed the door at turn three, and he then ran off the road while making another attempt at the next corner. Iwasa took advantage of Pourchaire’s dirty tyres to then snatch fifth later in the lap.

Vesti came home 0.7s ahead of Martins, while Iwasa – who ran an alternate strategy by starting on the medium tyre before making an early stop on lap 20 – used the extra grip of his soft tyres to pass fellow Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar for fourth in the closing stages.

Saturday’s sprint race winner Dennis Hauger finished less than a second behind Pourchaire in seventh, with Enzo Fittipaldi 0.4s further adrift in eighth. Juan Manuel Correa was ninth ahead of his Van Amersfoort Racing team-mate Richard Verschoor.

Prema’s Ollie Bearman was another to start on the medium tyre, but the Ferrari junior struggled in the early stages, losing out to Hauger and Fittipaldi on lap one and then facing pressure from Correa. He eventually finished out of the points in 12th behind Jehan Daruvala.

Trident’s Clement Novalak was the only retiree, having pulled off early on with an issue.

Race result (37 laps)