Honda’s junior driver Matsushita outshines his dominant teammate to win the Hungarian sprint race from pole. Vandoorne completed the ART 1-2 after holding off Rapax’s Sirotkin, whose form has been stellar since Monaco. Yesterday’s winner Alex Lynn finished out of the points in 9th, while possible championship contender Alex Rossi was forced to pit and crossed the line with the fastest lap but right at the back of the pack.
A stall for De Jong at the start was well avoided by those behind him, while out in front Sirotkin jumped past Raffaele Marciello into 3rd. The best start came from the back of the field, with Sergio Canamasas flying from 25th to 10th into the first corner.
9 laps later though the Spaniard began complaining of lack of grip from the rear tyres, and the masses of positions gained off the line began to unravel, starting with Arthur Pic, who this time a year ago was celebrating his first win himself. Another driver going backwards in the tragic tale of tyres was Alex Rossi. Starting out of the top 10 the American made no lasting impression going forwards, and despite some strong defensive driving couldn’t stay ahead of the train pressuring him from behind. His teammate encountered similar problems but fortunately for King not to the same extent.
There were some opportunistic lunges from Artem Markelov, who was creating his own overtaking zones at any and every corner of the track. His duel with Julian Leal had onlookers holding their breath as the pair diced for position, Leal ultimately besting the less experienced Russian with a nail-bitingly close pass.
Sirotkin, having saved his tyres, grew increasingly close to Vandoorne in the final laps, going for an all or nothing pass on Vandoorne that unfortunately didn’t pay off and forcing the Rapax man to settle for third. Also having saved his tyres Robert Visoiu claimed some valuable points to finish 7th, pulling off an effortless pass on Gasly; DAMS not showing the same pace and confidence and yesterday.
Norman Nato drove the race of his GP2 career, executing some first class passes on the likes of Alex Lynn and Pierre Gasly to come home in a well-deserved 6th.
The day belonged to Nobuharu Matsushita though, with his faultless driving and persistence under pressure paying off, an amazing feat in his first season racing outside of Asia.