Pepe Marti secured a hard-fought victory in the Formula 2 Sprint Race at the Hungaroring, narrowly keeping Alex Dunne at bay in a tense final lap battle.
After a largely tactical race focused on tyre management and a late Safety Car intervention, Marti’s resilient defence secured him the victory.
Dunne finished second behind the Campos Racing driver, while Jak Crawford claimed third, picking up vital points for his championship challenge.
Marti began the race from pole, with Dunne alongside him on the front row. Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli started from ninth, closely followed by his nearest rival Crawford in eighth.
Marti repels early challenges to establish race lead
At the start, Arvid Lindblad got a good launch, but Marti covered him off with Dunne following close behind.
Into Turn 6, Victor Martins had a good look at the Irishman, but the Rodin covered him off. Further back, contact between Roman Stanek and Gabrielle Mini saw the former spin off, but was able to rejoin, albeit in last.
The Czech’s Invicta was quickly on a mission, taking Ritomo Miyata and Max Esterson to move up to 20th.
Richard Verschoor moved up to eighth from 10th, capitalising on Oliver Goethe and Fornaroli jostling for the position ahead.
By Lap 4, Marti opened up a lead of seven tenths as DRS was now enabled. Luke Browning was up to sixth, just behind Crawford, as Mini was handed a 10-second penalty for taking Stanek off.
A DRS train formed from Martins downwards, as Marti, Lindblad and Dunne started to break away, the Red Bull junior in second starting to narrow the gap to his Campos team-mate.
The Englishman set the fastest lap on Lap 6 and started to reel in Marti, with Dunne now left behind.
Lindblad bided his time and waited until Turn 1 on Lap 8 to dive down the inside of Marti, but after going a little deep into the braking zone, the Spaniard was able to switch back into Turn 3, forcing Lindblad wide and retaining the lead.
Lindblad was not hanging around, trying again to overtake into Turn 1 on Lap 10, but was not able to get close enough, with Marti telling his team over radio that the battle was “quite stupid”.
Mid-race battles intensify before Montoya brings out the Safety Car
Dunne and Martins appeared to be keeping their powder dry, maintaining a watching brief just a small gap behind the Campos pair, with Lindblad being told to conserve his tyres, potentially ending his charge for the lead for the time being.
Lindblad dropped back to just under a second behind Marti, with Dunne now just half a second behind, and into Lap 14, the McLaren junior was on Lindblad’s rear.
Further back, Browning was edging closer to Crawford, with Fornaroli and Verschoor not far behind. The American was inching closer to Martins by Lap 18, as much of the order settled into a rhythm, as cars started to conserve their rubber.
Mini chose to take his penalty in the pits and switch to new tyres, as Dunne made a big move one lap later.
Looking to be too far back to overtake Lindblad, he boldly braked late, and from around four car lengths away, divebombed him into Turn 1, a quite brilliant and brave move.
Dunne now set off in pursuit of Marti, as Lindblad fell into the clutches of Martins, the Frenchman looking to take him into Turn 1 on Lap 20.
He kept trying into Turns 2 and 3, and in doing so, Crawford took his chance and stole fourth, and began pressing Lindblad himself, his tyres now seemingly shot after his early attempts on Marti.
Crawford tried to take third around the outside of Lindblad into Turn 1, but the teenager still resisted, as Martins, Browning, Fornaroli and all other comers behind now close in proximity.
As racing began to hot up with six laps to go, the Safety Car was deployed as Sebastian Montoya’s PREMA parked up on the side of the start-finish straight with a technical gremlin.
Marti denies Dunne in last-lap battle to win the Sprint
The deployment saw teams prepare for drivers to come in for fresh tyres in a bid for a late sprint to the finish, but the pit lane was closed to prevent such manoeuvres.
Entering Lap 26, the Safety Car returned to the pits as Marti continued to lead from Dunne as Browning got a good run out of the last corner and made the move stick on Martins for fifth at Turn 2.
The race leaders scampered off down the road once again as Crawford tried to take third off Lindblad once again.
On the penultimate lap, he was almost pushing Lindblad down the main straight, but the Red Bull junior still denied the American.
Fornaroli, meanwhile, locked up massively into Turn 1 but managed to remain in seventh place.
Dunne stayed within DRS range of Marti heading onto the final lap but was not close enough to make a move into Turn 1.
Finally, Crawford took the position heading into the first corner and made it stick.
Back to the front, Dunne and Marti went side by side through the final sector in a thrilling end to the Sprint.
The Spaniard got his elbows out as the Rodin driver found himself shoved off the track at the pitlane entry.
Dunne fumes as stewards given plenty to review post-race
Marti crossed the line just two tenths ahead of Dunne after the battle at Turn 13 to take his third win of the season.
However, the stewards flagged him for erratic driving behind the Safety Car after Dunne was forced to take evasive action when the Campos driver braked sharply on the main straight.
With numerous incidents throughout the race, race control faced a busy post-race review, potentially including the final-lap clash between Marti and Dunne.
As the provisional results were confirmed, Dunne settled for second place, earning valuable points in the title battle.
However, visibly frustrated, he quickly left his car and headed to what would certainly be an awkward cool-down room and podium celebration.
Crawford finished third, also taking vital points towards his tally and fight for the championship.
Lindblad limped home in fourth with his degrading tyres, Browning finished fourth, Martins fifth, followed by Fornaroli and Verschoor completing the top eight for the Sprint.
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