Minì flawless in Hungarian F2 Sprint victory

Gabriele Minì claimed a vital victory in his pursuit of the FIA Formula 2 drivers' championship in Saturday's Sprint at Budapest's Hungaroring, winning from P2 on the grid and claiming the additional fastest lap along the way. The MP Motorsport driver was patient in the early running, saving his tires and making his overtake for the lead stick before clearing off into the distance. Dino Beganovic and Laurens van Hoepen completed the podium for DAMS Lucas Oil and Trident respectively after an incident between polesitter Sebastian Montoya and Nikola Tsolov put both on the sidelines.

Montoya got a strong enough start from pole to hold off Minì and the rest of the chasing pack into Turn 1, but Tsolov was on the attack and up to third place at the exit of the first corner. Title rival Rafael Câmara also had a positive start, as he was up to sixth from P9 on the grid.

With DRS enabled, Minì started to get the gap to the leader down, and he was hovering around a second back by lap 5, with the leading nine drivers breaking away from the rest of the field. Lap 8 and the MP driver was within DRS range and forced a defensive move from Montoya into Turn 1. The order remained the same, with Tsolov over a second behind the leading duo unable to take advantage.

Minì ran within a second of Montoya for the next several laps but by lap 13, Tsolov had cut down the deficit to P2. The Bulgarian moved back to within DRS range himself after saving tyres in the early stages. lap 17 and Minì got the drive he needed out of the final corner to use DRS and force Montoya to lock-up into Turn 1 in defense. The Alpine Academy junior covered the Colombian off into Turn 2 to seal the lead of the race.

Tsolov had a lunge into Turn 1 on the following lap, and the pair nearly made contact, but the PREMA Racing driver remained ahead for the time being. Further back in the pack, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak lost DRS to Câmara, opening the door for ART Grand Prix teammate Kush Maini to come through for P7 at Turn 1 at the start of lap 19.

On lap 21 Tsolov had another chance at Montoya, going late on the brakes into Turn 1, but the pair made contact, leaving the PREMA driver out on the spot and the Campos driver suffered race-ending damage.

The virtual safety car was subsequently deployed. The VSC was withdrawn entering lap 23, with Minì leading Beganovic by 2.3s, while Noel León was under investigation for a VSC infringement. The Mexican didn't hold back in the meantime, taking P7 from Joshua Duerksen at Turn 2 with a switchback on corner exit on lap 25. He was then handed a five-second time penalty for his earlier infraction. Van Hoepen had been promoted to third after the collision between Montoya and Tsolov, but a wide moment at Turn 4 on lap 26 opened the door for Câmara to regain DRS.

Nobody looked like stopping Minì after he took the lead, and he claimed his second victory of the season ahead of Beganovic and van Hoepen. Câmara had to settle for fourth ahead of the ART duo of Maini and Inthraphuvasak. Duerksen repelled a last-lap charge from Martinius Stenshorne for seventh, with the Norwegian rounding out the points in eighth.

America's Colton Herta finished 14th, less than a second behind Hitech teammate Ritomo Miyata.

"Finally another win! Our pace was very good, had an OK start, just kept our position and followed for a few laps," related Minì. "When I felt I had much more pace I started to attack, and once I got the overtake done, it was all about managing and we did that very well. Now onto tomorrow."

Tsolov remains at the top of the standings with 161 points but with the win Minì closes the gap to 16, going onto 145 heading into Sunday's Feature Race, set to get underway at 11:25am local time. Kush Maini will start from pole position.

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