Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Freddie Slater claimed his maiden FIA Formula 3 victory in the Hungaroring feature race as the Audi junior driver seized the championship lead.
Campos Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu finished second as he conceded his series lead with Brando Badoer completing the podium positions.
As the lights blinked out, MP Motorsport’s Tuukka Taponen fended off Slater while Badoer stormed past Mattia Colnaghi and Nicola Lacorte to move his Rodin into the top three.
Trident driver Slater was on an early charge and looked to the inside of turn 12; Taponen sharply closed the door and the pair made contact, Slater losing part of his front wing.
Slater continued on as chaos unfolded behind, the Campos duo of Theophile Nael and Ugo Ugochukwu making contact while squabbling over sixth while Gerrard Xie and Maciej Gladysz came together in spectacular fashion at turn 13.
Slater didn’t need to find a way past Taponen though as the Finnish driver dived for the pits to change his rear tyre after the contact, dropping him down to sixth.
Action got back underway on lap 10 with Ugochukwu the man on the move, spectacularly diving past both Badoer and Colnaghi into turn 2 to move his Campos into second place.
After securing a maiden podium at Silverstone, AIX’s Yevan David found himself squabbling with his teammate Fernando Barichello and Van Amersfoort’s Hiyu Yamakoshi.
The Sri Lankan looked to dive up the inside of the pair into turn 1 but instead found himself facing the wrong way having been spun round. Further up the track, Yamakoshi clashed with another AIX driver as he made contact with Barrichello’s rear suspension, eliminating the AIX driver on the spot.
With six laps remaining Slater and Ugochukwu locked horns as the pair battled over the race lead and championship lead.
The American’s barrage of attacks continued throughout the six laps, looking for moves all over the circuit. Slater held firm though, fending off Ugochukwu to claim his first FIA F3 win and take the lead of the championship for the first time this season.
Badoer finished just three tenths clear of Colnaghi with the Italian securing a third podium this season. Nael held on to fifth after an epic battle with Taponen in the dying stages of the race.