F2 Hungarian GP: Doohan dominates sprint after early blunder
30th July 2022Virtousi Racing’s Jack Doohan dominated the sprint race to take the win after he regained his lost position from Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi, in the second corner.
How the sprint race unfolded…
It was a poor start from the reverse pole-sitter Virtousi Racing’s Jack Doohan who had to filter in behind the Charouz of Enzo Fittipaldi down into the Hungarian Hungaroring’s first corner. However, the Virtuosi driver was able to regain his lost position as Fittipaldi locked up into turn two and ran wide.
However, when the pack arrived at turn one, Prema’s Dennis Hauger was sent into a spin as he collected Logan Sargeant’s (Prema) front wing. Due to the spin, Prema stalled out on track and couldn’t continue on with the race. In the incident, the American driver couldn’t do much as the Carlin was squeezed between Hauger and MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich.
At the end of lap three, when the safety car returned to the pit lane, Doohan bolted into the penultimate corner to get the race back up to racing speed. This tactic allowed the Virtuosi driver to have some breathing space from Hitech’s Juri Vips who had also overtaken Fittipaldi, at turn two, on the first lap.
On lap six, Dams’ Roy Nissany and MP Motorsport’s Clement Novalak was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop after the two drivers made contact into turn two. The MP driver locked up into the corner as the two went wheel-to-wheel and understeered into the side of Nissany. The contact resulted in a puncture for the MP driver. By the time Novalak returned to the circuit, the MP quickly went a lap down.
The incident was soon under investigation by race control who quickly deemed Novalak at fault and slapped the French driver with a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.
After 10 laps, Doohan remained out in the lead of the race as he kept Vips at arms length in a bid to convert reverse pole into the race win. The Estonian driver sat 1.1 seconds away from the Virtousi, just outside of DRS (Drag Reduction System) range.
While their fight was only for track position, not points, Van Amersfoort Racing’s David Beckmann forced Virtuosi’s Marino Sato into an unforced error into turn two. The German tried to slip by into turn one, on lap 16, but Sato defended well. However, with assistance from DRS, Beckmann tried to go around the outside into turn two but Sato locked up into the corner, this allowed the VAR driver to switch back down the inside and move up to P14.
Trident’s Richard Verschoor was the second driver to be issued with a time penalty by race control, on lap 17. However, the Trident driver’s five-second time penalty was for track limits rather than a collision.
On lap 19, Marcus Armstrong tried to make a move around the outside of Prema’s Jehan Daruvala. As the New Zealander put his nose ahead of the Indian driver but contact was made with the Hitech’s front right tyre which forced the Hitech to take the run off. The incident was soon put under investigation by race control and a 10-second time penalty was soon given to Daruvala for causing a collision.
After the contact, Dams’ Ayumu Iwasa tried to make up an easy place from Daruvala and Armstrong’s contact. However, the Hitech fought fiercely to keep his position showed the Japanese driver was shown the grass on the exit of turn two.
On lap 22, Verschoor was then slapped with a 10-second time penalty – on top of his previous penalty – for another track limit violation.
Carlin’s Liam Lawson succeeded where Armstrong failed, on lap 23, as the New Zealander slipped down the inside of Daruvala into turn one.
The two broke late into the corner but Lawson was able to maintain control of his car and it allowed the Carlin to gain better traction on the exit. However, Armstrong quickly picked up the scraps and overtook Daruvala to move up into P7, behind Lawson.
At the end of the lap, Daruvala ventured into the pit lane for an unscheduled stop. Before he could swap his worn yellow-ringed medium tyres for a fresh set of the red-ringed soft compounds, the Indian driver was forced to serve his 10-second time penalty.
Verschoor was, yet again, put under investigation for not serving his time penalty correctly when the Trident came into the pit lane, late on in the race.
Podium:
- Jack Doohan, Virtuosi Racing
- Juri Vips, Hitech
- Enzo Fittipaldi, Charouz
That’s it for the article: F2 Hungarian GP: Doohan dominates sprint after early blunder! What did you think of the sprint race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula Two here:
- F2 French GP: Iwasa commands France feature race
- F2 French Sprint: Liam Lawson redeems poor start with race win
- F2 Austria: Richard Verschoor wins with gamble in feature race
- F2 Austrian GP: Marcus Armstrong leads sprint from start to finish
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
