Tom Blomqvist took a commanding win in the first Formula 3 European Championship race of the weekend at Hungaroring.
The Carlin driver took over the lead from pole-sitter Estaban Ocon on the run down to the first corner, and while Ocon was able to shadow Blomqvist for the first half a dozen laps, the Briton put in a series of quick laps mid-way through the race to stretch the gap out to more than five seconds.
That proved to be sufficient to produce a comfortable win, the final margin back to second-placed Ocon being 4.8 seconds at the finish.
Felix Rosenqvist finished third after a quiet race, having inherited the final spot on the podium from Max Verstappen six laps into proceedings when the Dutchman was sidelined with a mechanical problem.
Rosenqvist’s team-mate Lucas Auer did make a late play for third, closing to within a second several laps from the end, but Rosenqvist was able to manage the gap and keep the Austrian off the podium.
Jordan King finished fifth for Carlin, ahead of Jules Szymkowiak, who recorded his best finish in European F3 by some margin.
However, Szymkowiak did have some help in the latter stages when Antonio Fuoco and Gustavo Menezes, who had been running sixth and seventh respectively, were handed drive-through penalties for exceeding track limits.
Fuoco, who made a poor getaway from fourth on the grid, wound up having to take two trips down the pitlane, picking up a second penalty for crossing the white line when re-joining the track after serving the first and finished 19th.
Felix Serralles and Dennis van de Laar also benefited from Fuoco and Menezes being penalised, finishing seventh and eighth, while Mitchell Gilbert and Sean Gelael rounded out the points-paying positions.
Jake Dennis, meanwhile, finished 11th, just one position short of scoring a point after starting at the back of the grid thanks to a driveshaft failure in Friday’s qualifying session.
