ART Grand Prix’s Nobuharu Matsushita stormed to a controlled and dominant Formula 2 sprint race victory in Hungary.
The Honda protégé lined up from fourth place on the grid, but a brilliant start enabled him to jump into the lead of the race on the run down to the first corner.
From there, he quickly escaped up the road, with a lead of over two seconds by the eighth lap of the race – only to lose time with an off at Turn 4 shortly after.
Matsushita survived two virtual safety car phases, for respective Robert Visoiu/Nabil Jeffri and Sergio Canamasas/Jeffri collisions, to take victory, his second of the 2017 campaign.
DAMS racer Oliver Rowland backed up his Featiure Race triumph with second place following a late move on Nyck de Vries.
Rapax racer and McLaren junior de Vries lost the place on the penultimate lap but finished third, with championship leader Charles Leclerc fourth.
The Monegasque driver was fifth after the early laps but jumped ahead of a struggling Luca Ghiotto late on, despite earlier complaints of a mechanical issue – which saw him slowly drop back in the final stages.
He now has a 50-point lead to Rowland in the standings. Norman Nato was fifth after a late battle with Nicholas Latifi, ahead of Alexander Albon and Ghiotto (who ran as high as second).
Artem Markelov was ninth and Sean Gelael completed the top 10, while Trident’s Santino Ferrucci was 14th in his second F2 race.
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