Home Featured Ye beats rival Lundgaard to victory in first Eurocup Hungaroring race

Ye beats rival Lundgaard to victory in first Eurocup Hungaroring race

by Bethonie Waring

Ye

Championship leader Yifei Ye claimed his first Formula Renault Eurocup victory since the second round of the season in the opening race of the weekend at the Hungaroring.

Ye snatched the lead from pole-sitter and title rival Christian Lundgaard on the run to the first corner and pulled away from the Renault junior as Lundgaard battled to keep Max Fewtrell and Victor Martins behind him.

Any gap Ye managed to make was soon wiped away when Thomas Neubauer collided with a wall on the third lap, damaging his suspension and bringing an end to his race. The safety car was called out to clear the track, allowing Lundgaard to close back in on his championship rival.

After a short safety car period, Ye managed a strong restart to pull away from the rest of the field. Lundgaard was able to stay in touch with Ye, keeping within a second and a half of the race leader, and the pair built up a strong advantage to Fewtrell in third as they pushed one another.

Lundgaard was never quite close enough to make a move and a faultless drive from Ye awarded him his second victory of the season. Lundgaard finished just 1.076s ahead, with Fewtrell a further 4.598s behind.

Martins took fourth ahead of a race long battle for P5.

Logan Sargeant managed to pass Lorenzo Colombo on the opening lap, but couldn?t shake the JD Motorsport driver. Colombo tried to make a move past the Sargeant after the early safety car and the pair ran side by side for a number of corners but Sargeant managed to keep the position. He spent the remainder of the race with Colombo in his mirrors.

In the closing stages of the race, Colombo was joined by the charging Oscar Piastri, who started 10th. Piastri pushed hard, coming within 0.4s of Colombo and giving Sargeant ahead a little breathing room.

Sargeant finished fifth, while Piastri ran out of time before he could make a move on Colombo.

Axel Matus finished eighth to take his first Formula Renault Eurocup points, while Charles Milesi and Alex Smolyar rounded out the top 10.

 

Race results
Pos Name Team Time
1 Yifei Ye Josef Kaufmann Racing 18 laps
2 Christian Lundgaard MP Motorsport +1.076s
3 Max Fewtrell R-ace GP +5.674s
4 Victor Martins R-ace GP +7.865s
5 Logan Sargeant R-ace GP +8.981s
6 Lorenzo Colombo JD Motorsport +9.978s
7 Oscar Piastri Arden +10.319s
8 Axel Matus AVF +16.061s
9 Charles Milesi R-ace GP +16.792s
10 Alexander Smolyar Tech 1 Racing +17.200s
11 Thomas Maxwell JD Motorsport +18.210s
12 Frank Bird Tech 1 Racing +19.216s
13 Alex Peroni MP Motorsport +20.027s
14 Neil Verhagen Tech 1 Racing +21.052s
15 Eliseo Martinez AVF +22.977s
16 Sami Taoufik Arden +23.789s
17 Freek Schothorst MP Motorsport +24.948s
18 Clement Novalak Josef Kaufmann Racing +25.923s
19 Nikita Volegov Arden +34.380s
20 Douried Ghattas Anders Motorsport +35.807s
21 Phil Hill Anders Motorsport +38.587s
22 Gabriel Gandulia R-ace GP +42.001s
23 Najiy Razak JD Motorsport +47.820s
24 Christian Munoz AVF +3 laps
25 Vladimir Tziortzis Fortec Motorsports +3 laps
Ret Arthur Rougier Fortec Motorsports
Ret Raul Guzman Fortec Motorsports
Ret Thomas Neubauer Tech 1 Racing
Fastest Lap: Lundgaard, 1m42.841s

Eurocup standings
1
?Ye 182? ?2?Lundgaard 165? ?3?Fewtrell 140.5? ?4 Martins 139 ??5?Sargeant 110? ?6?Colombo 102.5 ??7?Milesi 85.5? ?8?Peroni 65? ?9 Piastri 59? ?10?Maxwell 46

Northern European Cup standings
1?Hill 126? ?2?Ghattas 126? ?3?Gandula 108? ?4?Sargeant 87? ?5 Martins 83? ?6?Peroni 60? ?7?Neubauer 58? ?8?Milesi 57? ?9 Bird 52? ?10 Lundgaard 48