Gabriele Mini drove a splendid race, leading to victory and the fastest lap in the Formula 2 Sprint Race at the Hungarian GP.
The Italian started second on the grid and, with determination and patience, managed to overtake Sebastian Montoya for the lead after a successful move around the outside and a switch back. The Sprint Race win at the Hungarian GP marks Mini’s second F2 win of the season and the first since Miami.
In the press conference attended by media, including Motorsport Week, Mini spoke about the importance of strong momentum, and said: “It’s always very important. You have to try and keep always a good momentum.
“I think the race too, the Feature Race in Spa, was already quite a good one. So, we just kept the momentum going into the weekend.
“We of course didn’t manage to maximise the Qualifying very well, but again today was very good to try and stay in the podium position. Then, of course, it’s good to look at the championship and gain points, but we still have the Feature Race tomorrow.”
Mini is starting further back than some of his championship rivals in tomorrow’s Feature Race, which Mini acknowledged.
“Our contenders are starting ahead, so we still have to try and do a good job. But, of course, it’s always needed.” He said, “You always want to reward the hard work with a win and with good results.”
Extracting the most performance
While he drove brilliantly in the Sprint Race, Friday’s Qualifying did not put him in the best spot. The MP driver lined up second on the grid due to the reverse grid; however, he will start P9 for the Feature Race.
Considering the length of Sunday’s race, Mini still has a solid chance of making it to the podium, and when asked about extracting his best performance on Saturdays on this track, Mini said: “It always depends really on where you qualify.
“Of course, if you don’t do a great quali, then you start in the front in the Sprint Race; it’s a bit easier to try and fight for the win. I don’t think it necessarily shows the best pace on Saturday. It depends on many things.
“Today, we clearly were the quickest. Before the Safety Car, we still managed to set fastest laps and even after we still managed to go even quicker.
“So clearly showed that we had a good pace. Of course, it’s 10 points against the 25 of the Feature Race. If anything, I’d rather take full points on Sunday. We still take the 10 points very happily.”
Impact of Tyre management in F2
The high track temperature at the Hungaroring had drivers having to think extra carefully about tyre management. With 28 laps to tackle, the drivers were already experiencing graining. The Feature Race will be even more of a challenge with its 37 laps.
Asked how the data gathered from the Sprint Race regarding tyre management will impact the Feature Race, Mini said: “We always try and manage the tyres on the first part of the race.
“That’s why it was really hard for me to try and get past Sebas on the first laps. Then already they say that the degradation doesn’t come so early on, but they’re overheating, so that helped me quite a lot with the balance we had probably, and we were in a better position than Sebas and managed to overtake.”
“But, once you get clean air, it’s a completely different story. I just started going quicker and probably sliding less on the tyre. It’s really important, especially on this track, to manage at the beginning, but then the position on the track.
“So being in clean or dirty air makes a huge difference. Tomorrow we will see the bigger differences probably.”
Mindset into the F2 Feature Race
While much of the Sprint Race focused on drivers defending their own position, Lap 21 came with drama. Tsolov attempted to dive on the inside of Montoya; however, the move was unsuccessful. The lunge took both drivers out of the Sprint, and with that, it opened up the door for other championship contenders to seize the opportunity of Tsolov securing zero points.
The MP Motorsport driver sits second in the F2 Drivers’ Championship and is very much in contention for the title. With 11 points from his Sprint victory and fastest lap, he has accumulated 145 points total, leaving him 16 points behind Nikola Tsolov in front.
Asked by Motorsport Week if Tsolov possibly getting a penalty for the incident with Montoya will affect his mentality going into Sunday as it is a great opportunity to get points on his championship opponent, Mini said: “It’s one car to overtake less. I think that’s the main difference, to be honest.
“In the end, we always will try and maximise our result whether we start P8 or P9. We have to try and finish as far ahead as we can. We don’t really, let’s say, control what the others do, but we can control what we do.
“That’s the only thing we will focus on, but of course, starting one position ahead always helps.”
Speaking about whether the strong performance in the Sprint gives him confidence for the Feature Race, Mini said: “Well, it gives quite a lot of confidence going into the Feature Race, the longer race.
“I think we were clearly quite a lot stronger than everyone else in terms of tyre management. That does not mean that it will be the case once again tomorrow because the track will change, the wind will change.
“Everyone will work overnight, but it for sure gives us a good boost of confidence heading into tomorrow’s longer race.”
The difficulty of overtaking at Hungaroring
The Hungaroring is often described as ‘Monaco without walls’. The nickname stems from how difficult it is for drivers to overtake at the track. This year, an extra DRS zone was added between Turn 11 and Turn 12 to help with the challenge.
When the drivers were asked whether the added DRS zone was helpful in staying close to their opponents and eventually overtaking, they were not optimistic. Dino Beganovic explained that he did not notice much of a difference from the previous year and that it did not impact his race.
Mini agreed with the Swede, adding on: “I think the DRS zone itself is quite short and you have to wait a bit before opening because you’re still on the double kerb if you try and push.
“Maybe you gain half a tenth at the end or a tenth, which in the end can make the difference, but it’s not huge like the main DRS zone in the main straight.”
Mini on balancing risk and reward
During the Sprint, Mini’s race engineer told him over the radio that he only had one car to make a move on, but to make it clean. Explaining how he balanced the risk and reward with that one move, Mini said:
“He said that because you don’t want to try and push too early because it’s really easy to just over-push on the tyres and end up losing more position instead of gaining only one or keeping yours.
“We spoke quite a lot about this before the race, but we got quite a lot of experience, so we know more or less what to expect also from previous years. In the end, it’s still very important to try and get the overtake. You have to balance out the two things.”
The Italian’s patience before making the final move turned out to be crucial for his race. While he was lurking behind Montoya, he waited until Lap 17 to make the move. Expanding on how car characteristics and tyre management impacted his ability to overtake, Mini explained: “It’s a balance.
“You need to have a good balance and a good set-up on the car. At the same time, you have to make sure to understand quickly where the degradation is going to hit more or less. It’s all about these kinds of things.
“But we know every slide, everything we do at the beginning of the race is going to cost us quite a lot towards the end. I think it’s 50-50 in a way.”
READ MORE: Gabriele Mini charges to F2 victory at Hungarian GP Sprint Race
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