Antonelli storms to first feature race win thanks to Safety Car

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.

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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 picked off Bortoleto for second on the next lap, then set his sights on leader Martins. He took the lead at the start of the following lap, completing his rise from fifth to first in just over two laps of green flag racing.

Having taken the lead, Antonelli continued to pull away on his soft rubber and took by 12 seconds from Martins. Verschoor took the final podium place in third after winning a final lap battle with Bortoleto.

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Fittipaldi crossed the line in fifth ahead of Hauger with sprint race winner Kush Maini in seventh. Ritomo Miyata scored four points in eighth, with Taylor Barnard and Rafael Villagomez completing the points scorers.

With neither Hadjar nor Aron scoring points in the race, Hadjar continues to lead the championship with 140 points, 18 ahead of Aron. Bortoleto moves into third ahead of Maloney, while Antonelli moves up to sixth as a result of his win.

Formula 2 Hungary race two results

Position	Car	Driver	Team
1	4	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Prema
2	1	Victor Martins	ART
3	22	Richard Verschoor	Trident
4	10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta
5	14	Enzo Fittipaldi	Van Amersfoort
6	11	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport
7	9	Kush Maini	Invicta
8	6	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin
9	25	Taylor Barnard	AIX
10	15	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort
11	23	Roman Stanek	Trident
12	21	Josep Maria Marti	Campos
13	12	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport
14	2	Zak O’Sullivan	ART
15	3	Oliver Bearman	Prema
16	8	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS
17	7	Jak Crawford	DAMS
18	20	Isack Hadjar	Campos
19	24	Joshua Duerksen	AIX
DNF	16	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech
DNF	5	Zane Maloney	Rodin
DNF	17	Paul Aron	Hitech

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