Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli passed four rivals in little more than two laps to win his first Formula 2 feature race at the Hungaroring.
Antonelli took advantage of a well-timed Safety Car to pit for soft tyres and pass four cars ahead at the restart to claim his second F2 race win in the last two rounds.
Victor Martins finished second, while Richard Verschoor claimed the final podium position after winning a final lap battle with Gabriel Bortoleto.
Championship leader Isack Hadjar ruined his chances of adding to his points tally with a bizarre mistake before the race began. The Red Bull junior driver failed to exit the pit lane in time before the exit was closed.
As a result, he dropped from third on the grid to the very back of the field. Pole winner Paul Aron therefore started the race facing an open goal with a huge opportunity to gain on the championship leader.
However, when the lights went out, Aron made a poor getaway and then locked up heavily into turn one, falling down to seventh place. Martins took the lead followed by Enzo Fittipaldi and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Fittipaldi challenged for the lead when DRS was activated, but the Alpine junior rebuffed his efforts. Fourth-placed Zane Maloney was the highest-placed driver on the hard tyres with Antonelli also on hards behind him.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Antonelli managed to force his way by the Rodin driver through turn 11, but at the start of the next lap, Aron misjudged his speed into turn two and clipped the rear of Maloney’s car, sending both spinning out of the race.
The Safety Car was deployed to recover the stranded Dallaras, offering the perfect opportunity for all who had started on the softs to pit for hard tyres, including leaders Martins, Fittipaldi and Bortoleto. When the race restarted, Antonelli led the field away ahead of Richard Verschoor and Kush Maini, who had all started on the hard tyres.
Martins passed Maini and Verschoor and was six seconds behind leader Antonelli when the Safety Car was suddenly deployed for a second time on lap 22 due to Amaury Cordeel crashing at the exit of turn four. This allowed the hard starters to make their stops for softs, including Antonelli.
Martins led when the race restarted, ahead of Bortoleto, Fittipaldi, Dennis Hauger and Antonelli in fifth. But with the advantage of soft tyres, Antonelli immediately took advantage to pass Hauger into turn one before moving past Fittipaldi in turn two.
Antonelli…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…