It was like two different races at Hungaroring as Carlin’s Lando Norris dominated the wet part while Prema’s Nyck de Vries the crucial dry portion to win the feature race in the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
The conditions in Hungaroring forced the FIA to keep on with the formation lap for three laps before it was decided for a standing start. After two races with a rolling procedure, the standing start returned for this weekend with clutch changes.
Under wet conditions, pole-sitter Carlin’s Sergio Sette Camara started on cautiously to remain in the lead as Prema’s de Vries moved to second and Campos Luca Ghiotto in third after ART’s Jack Aitken bogged down to fourth.
Behind, Charouz Racing’s Antonio Fuoco shot into fifth from 12th with Carlin’s Norris in sixth after a slow start. His teammate though Camara kept on the gas to lead from de Vries with Fuoco on the charge to move to third, clearing Aitken and Ghiotto.
While the battle carried inside the Top 5, Norris then started his show as lap after lap he started to overtake, clearing Ghiotto, Aitken, Fuoco, de Vries and finally Camara in some bold moves around the outside on several parts of the track.
The British driver was flying on the wet tyres and once in the lead, Norris built on 14 seconds advantage as a fight ensued for second between Camara, de Vries and Fuoco. The latter two cleared Camara and got into a wheel-to-wheel action with each other.
The two went back and forth in the fight, even colliding before Fuoco finally managed to get de Vries for second when drivers started to pit to switch to slick tyres. It was Russian Time’s Tadasuke Makino who kick-started the dry tyre gamble.
It was the right choice as the rest of the field dived in, in the next couple of laps – only Fuoco was left to do so due to which he lost couple of places to de Vries and Camara, he had earned on track.
On dry tyres though Norris’ pace was nowhere near to be good as de Vries started to reel the fellow McLaren junior lap after lap. In no time, the Dutchman was all over Norris and in the first opportunity, the Prema driver took the race lead.
Once in front, de Vries went away in the distance to take a dominant win by 16.5s over Norris who had to fend off the battling Fuoco and Camara. The Italian came close to take Norris but the British driver hung on.
In the battle, Camara hit Fuoco for which the Brazilian was handed a penalty dropping him from third to seventh. This helped Ferrari junior to third, with Aitken in fourth and DAMS’ Alexander Albon completing the Top 5.
The Thai-British driver also had to fight through the field after starting in 13th. He had big moment behind Aitken while fighting for fifth at that time. He went wide in Turn 1 and almost crashed into the barrier before re-joining.
This allowed MP Motorsport’s Roberto Merhi and Ghitto to have a look-in for track position. But the wet parts on the track helped Albon still to keep the place. Ghiotto finished sixth after Merhi dropped out hugely in the latter stages.
Camara slotted in seventh for a sprint race front-row start with pole for Russian Time’s Artem Markelov. The Russian didn’t have a brilliant outing after he lost places at the start. He had some wild moments but recovered few places in the end.
He cleared both Merhi and Arden’s Nirei Fukuzumi to take reverse grid pole. His teammate Makino’s early dry switch helped him big time as the Japanese managed to finish in points after starting last in the race.
He also cleared his fellow countryman Fukuzumi in the tail end of the race with the Arden driver taking the final point. Merhi eventually finished 11th ahead of Trident’s Arjun Maini who cleared Prema’s Sean Gelael on the last lap.
The Indian was fourth at one point but he dropped out of the Top 10 gradually at the start under the tricky wet conditions. Meanwhile, Arden’s Maximilian Gunther and MP Motorsport’s Ralp Boschung took the track again after their early tangle.
It was a troubling day for championship leader and ART’s George Russell after a clutch issue forced him for a pitlane start. He took the race from the back of the grid, but had to eventually retire with a ‘dangerous’ car.
Position 11-18: Merhi, Maini, Gelael, Alessio Lorandi, Roy Nissany, Gunther, Louis Deletraz and Boschung. DNF: Nicholas Latifi and Russell.