F2 Hungarian GP: Pourchaire wins after Armstrong’s pit lane woes
31st July 2022ART’s Theo Pourchaire secured the feature race win after he inherited the net-lead when Hitech’s Marcus Armstrong was held in his pit box, to allow the Frenchman to pass safely.
How the feature race unfolded…
It was a great reaction from Hitech’s Marcus Armstrong compared to the pole-sitter, Ayumu Iwasa, who had to filter in behind the Hitech into the first corner. However, Iwasa fell down to third after the opening corners as ART’s Theo Pourchaire went side-by-side with the Dams into turn one and the French ART slipped past into turn two.
After four laps, Armstrong had established a healthy 1.2 second gap over Purchaire to keep the French driver out of DRS (Drag Reduction System) range.
Hitech’s Juri Vips and ART’s Frederik Vesti were placed under investigation for ‘forcing another driver off the track.’ It wasn’t long before race control concluded their decision as they issued the ART driver with a five-second time penalty for the incident.
At the end of lap eight, the championship leader, MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich became the first driver to complete his mandatory pit stop, followed by the likes of Jehan Daruvala (Prema) and Olli Caldwell (Campos). All three drivers swapped their red-ringed, soft compound tyres for the yellow-ringed, mediums.
A lap later, Armstrong, Pourchaire and Iwasa pitted for their mandatory stop to cover off Drugovich. However, it was a poor stop for the Hitech New Zealander as he was held in his pit box to allow Pourchaire and Iwasa to pass him respectively.
Campos’ Roberto Merhi was quickly noted by race control for a pit lane infringement. It was soon found that the substitute driver, for Ralph Boschung, had spun up his rear tyres without the rears being fastened. However, this was to be investigated by race control after the race.
At the same time, MP’s Clement Novalak was given a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
By lap 18, Vesti led the field by seven-seconds ahead of Vips, in P2. However, the top two drivers are yet to make a stop but the leading ART was informed that he was in contention for the race win as he had a big enough gap over his teammate, Pourchaire, down in 10th.
Two laps later, Prema’s Dennis Hauger became the first driver to discard his worn medium tyres for the softs. The Norweigan had an almighty stint ahead of him as he had to nurse those delicate Pirelli’s for 17 laps.
On lap 26, Vesti finally pitted from the race to make his mandatory stop. During this time, the Danish driver had to serve his five-second time penalty before the mechanics could swap the tyres over. When the Dane returned to the circuit, he struggled to regain tyre temperature which caused him to lock up numerous times on his out lap.
In the latter stages of the race, the rain began to fall. Despite this late twist, Vesti worked his way through the field with incredible pace with the, fresher, soft tyres and found himself up into P5. By the end of lap 33, Vesti put in a lap that was two-seconds faster than fourth-placed Armstrong.
Podium:
- Theo Pourchaire, ART
- Enzo Fittipaldi, Charouz
- Ayumu Iwasa, Dams
That’s it for the article: F2 Hungarian GP: Pourchaire wins after Armstrong’s pit lane woes! What did you think of the sprint race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula Two here:
- F2 Hungarian GP: Doohan dominates sprint after early blunder
- 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
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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.
