2019 Hungaroring Feature Race

The 2019 Hungaroring Feature Race, otherwise known officially as the 2019 Hungaroring Formula 2 Race 1, was the fifteenth race of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Hungaroring near Budapest, Hungary, on 3 August 2019. The race, held in support of the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, would see Nicholas Latifi re-establish his title bid, beating Championship leader Nyck de Vries.

de Vries had struck the first blow during qualifying, claiming pole position by two tenths of a second ahead of Luca Ghiotto. Indeed, in a session impacted heavily by rain de Vries proved to be the star of the show, as ART Grand Prix teammate Nikita Mazepin spun and stalled, while Latifi claimed third ahead of Mick Schumacher.

The conditions were better on raceday, with the skies grey but the circuit dry, with de Vries acing his start to claim an early lead. However, while keeping an eye on the antics of Ghiotto in second, both de Vries and the Italian would be caught out by a lunging Latifi, who screamed around the outside of both of them in his DAMS to secure the lead.

The top three soon broke away during the early laps, leaving Schumacher to fend off the attentions of Jack Aitken after the Brit made a strong start. Elsewhere, Anthoine Hubert had made some early progress to move from the back to fringes of the top ten, while Louis Delétraz had been an early casualty as a clutch failure ended his race before the end of the lap four.

Schumacher held fourth until the mid-race stops for tyres, with Aitken stopping earlier than the German and gaining the position courtesy of the undercut. Furthermore, a slow stop for Ghiotto allowed Aitken to slot his Campos ahead of the UNI-Virtuosi, leaving him in third. Up ahead, meanwhile, Latifi had kept just enough in hand to keep de Vries at bay, with the majority of those to start on the soft Pirelli tyres stopping before lap ten.

Jordan King was left in the lead of the race having started on the harder compound, while Latifi and de Vries led those who had made their stops in sixth and seventh. They duly began dicing through the field with their fresh tyres, with their fight briefly interrupted by a VSC when Arjun Maini retired.

Latifi eventually pulled six seconds clear of de Vries when King abandoned the lead, with Aitken running in a solid third ahead of Ghiotto. Ghiotto himself was being caught by Nobuharu Matsushita, who had caught Schumacher napping at the restart, while Sérgio Sette Câmara and King catching both having jumped the German youth after his stop.

A four-way brawl for fourth soon developed, with Ghiotto defending ferociously from first Matsushita, and then Câmara, who sneaked ahead of the Japanese racer when Ghiotto and Matsushita touched at the first corner. Unfortunately their fight would be ended prematurely, with the Safety Car making a race ending appearance after a fire ended Ralph Boschung's afternoon.

With that the race was over, with Latifi leading the SC train across the line to claim victory ahead of de Vries, the first time that the title protagonists had shared the podium in 2019. Aitken was next ahead of Ghiotto, who had a post-race penalty rescinded, with Câmara, Matsushita, King, Schumacher, Guanyu Zhou and Callum Ilott securing the remaining points.

Background
The 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship arrived at the Hungaroring for the penultimate pair of races before the summer break. The Hungaroring would be unchanged for the 2019 visit, with F2 once again supporting Formula One and the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, using the same circuit configuration as the senior series. Furthermore, F2 would complete the same race distance as it had before, with a 37 lap Feature race scheduled for Saturday, while the Sprint would run for 28 laps.

Silverstone Supplicants
Nyck de Vries would leave Silverstone still in command of the Championship, heading to the Hungaroring with 170 points to his name. Nicholas Latifi, meanwhile, had remained his closest challenger, but was still 31 points behind the Dutchman as the season plunged into its second half. Behind, Luca Ghiotto and Sérgio Sette Câmara had both lost ground, while Jack Aitken had moved into the top five with his victory.

DAMS had also ended up extending their grip on the Teams Championship, leaving the British Isles with a 33 point advantage. Their closest challengers remained UNI-Virtuosi, sat on 227 points, while ART Grand Prix had solidified their grip on third. They had, however, lost ground to fourth placed Campos Racing across the weekend in Silverstone, while Carlin completed the top five.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Qualifying Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * Gelael was awarded a three place grid penalty that he had originally been issued for the 2019 Silverstone Feature Race.
 * † Hubert and Caldéron were excluded from the results of qualifying after failing to comply with the FIA's nominated tyres.

Race
It was a warm and dry afternoon at the Hungaroring for the Feature Race, with no threat of rain to hinder the F2 field. There were some modifications to the grid, however, with Sean Gelael serving the penalty he protested against at Silverstone, while the two BWT Ardens were excluded after using an illegal set of tyres. That would most affect Anthoine Hubert, who was thrown to the back from ninth on the grid, although Nyck de Vries was set to start the race from pole as expected.

Report
de Vries would hook up his start beautifully to secure the lead from pole, and would have enough in hand to sweep across the circuit to deny Luca Ghiotto a lunge down the inside of turn one. Indeed, Ghiotto would be unable to challenge the Dutchman, and would instead have to fend off Nicholas Latifi on the outside, resulting in a duel on the brakes. Latifi would ultimately win that fight in some style to grab second, before throwing the #6 DAMS inside of de Vries as the Dutchman locked up and ran wide of the apex at the hairpin to secure the lead.

de Vries attempted to reclaim the lead through turn two, although he would instead find himself having to keep Ghiotto at bay for second as they both tried to go around the outside of Latifi. Ultimately they all held their positions, with Latifi able to escape somewhat through the kink of turn three, having had the best line. Behind, Mick Schumacher fended off a lunge from Jack Aitken, with the rest of the field making it through the first couple of corners without issue.

The rest of the opening tour saw the order begin to settle, with Latifi remaining ahead of de Vries, while Ghiotto plotted his revenge in third. Behind, Schumacher held fourth from Aitken and Nobuharu Matsushita, while Callum Ilott fired inside of Louis Delétraz into turn one at the start of the second lap to claim seventh. Elsewhere, Hubert had gained five places after a strong start in the #19 Arden, while Mahaveer Raghunathan had dropped right to the back of the field.

As the early laps ticked away Latifi would manage to build a small lead over de Vries, although the Canadian racer was unable to escape from DRS range of the Dutchman. Delétraz, meanwhile, would drop out of the race when his engine failed exiting the final corner, with the Swiss racer rolling to a stop at the end of the start/finish straight. That allowed Guanyu Zhou, Sérgio Sette Câmara and Jordan King to move up onto the back of Ilott, while behind Giuliano Alesi was putting up a ferocious defence to keep Hubert at bay for eleventh.

Hubert eventually forced his way past his compatriot on lap six, diving inside the #20 Trident into turn two. Zhou, meanwhile, threw a late and wild lunge at Ilott for seventh into turn one, although the Chinese racer was carrying too much speed and ran wide, allowing Ilott to cut back ahead. That also allowed Sette Câmara to challenge him on the exit, although Zhou would place his car well on the run to turn two to keep the Brazilian at bay.

After that the pit stops began, with de Vries the first of the leaders to blink at the end of the sixth tour to swap his soft Pirelli tyres for mediums. As he rejoined there would be a four way fight into the first corner for seventh between Ilott, Zhou, Sette Câmara and King, with Zhou again lunging late on the brakes and running wide. Ilott hence held the position once again, while behind Sette Câmara was unable to take advantage as King danced the #16 MP Motorsport around the outside of the hairpin to sneak ahead.

Three laps after de Vries and Latifi led Ghiotto into the pits for their mandatory stops, with de Vries lighting up the timesheets. The Canadian would, however, manage to get out ahead of the Dutchman, while Ghiotto managed to get out just ahead of Schumacher, who had already made his stop. However, both of the latter duo had slipped behind Aitken as the Anglo-Korean racer undercut them, while Zhou lost out to Sette Câmara.

All of that left King in the lead on the alternate medium-soft tyre strategy, with Hubet his closest challenger in second. Juan Manuel Correa and Sean Gelael were also on the alternate plan and completed the top four, although they were being rapidly caught by Latifi and de Vries. Indeed, those two had already passed Ralph Boschung, the fifth man to have started on mediums, while Arjun Maini was out after an engine failure.

Latifi would easily cruise past Gelael with the aid of DRS on lap thirteen, with de Vries trying and failing to get past the #10 Prema into the first corner. Latifi would go on to pass Correa with a well timed lunge into turn two, just as de Vries managed to wrestle sixth from Gelael on the brakes for the same left-hander. Latifi duly broke away from Correa before de Vries could move past, with the Dutchman ultimately losing two seconds to the Canadian as a result.

Gelael would also pass Correa soon after, although both would begin to slip down the field on their worn medium compound tyres. Indeed, Correa would find himself in a melee between Schumacher and Nobuharu Matsushita, with the German racer squeezing inside the #12 Charouz-Sauber into the first corner at the halfway point. That cost Schumacher a lot of time to Matsushita, who would pass Correa with relative ease through turn two, before sweeping past Schumacher downt he start/finish straight.

Back with Latifi and the Canadian racer had caught Hubert with twelve laps to go, and would duly fire the #6 DAMS down the inside of the #19 BWT Arden into the first hairpin to secure second. With that Latifi was away to catch King, although the Brit would serve his mandatory pitstop before the Canadian racer caught him with ten laps to go. Hubert would also pit having just been nabbed by de Vries, with King scrambling back out onto the circuit in ninth behind Ilott.

Into the closing stages and Schumacher's race was beginning to unwind, his pace wavering as his medium tyres wore away rapidly. Indeed, having fallen off the back of Matsushita the German racer would come under attack from Sette Câmara, who managed to sweep around the outside of the #9 Prema with superior grip through turn one. Ilott was also in trouble with his tyres after his early stop, although he would force King to run right around the outside of turn two to grab eighth.

Two laps later and King's charge had carried him onto the tail of Schumacher, with the #16 MP Motorsport duly sweeping past down the start/finish straight with five laps to go. He would begin reeling in Sette Câmara at a rapid rate, with the Brazilian himself catching an enticing duel between Ghiotto and Matsushita. Indeed, the pair would almost come to physical blows as Matsushita tried to squeeze Ghiotto into the hairpin of turn one in a bid to pass for fourth, although the Italian racer held the position.

That allowed Sette Câmara to challenge on the run to turn two, although Matsushita would force him to take the outside line, as he tried to lunge inside of Ghiotto. A three-way truel on the brakes would follow, with Sette Câmara almost taking both Ghiotto and Matsushita, only to run wide to leave the order as it stood. However, he would manage to sweep past Ghiotto at the start of the following lap, with King now bearing down on the trio with three laps to go.

King duly lunged inside of Matsushita into turn one with three laps to go, and would just manage to make the apex courtesy of his superior grip. That left him on the tail of Sette Câmara, although his charge was interrupted by a late Safety Car. Indeed, a spectacular engine failure for Boschung at turn four had left the #21 Trident stranded, and had left an oil slick through the right-hand flick.

That SC ultimately settled the race, with Latifi sweeping across the line to secure victory ahead of title rival de Vries. Aitken was third having been the only other driver to be picked up by the late SC, while Ghiotto, Sette Câmara and a frustrated King finished nose-to-tail a few seconds later. Matsushita was next up ahead of Schumacher, who secured reverse-grid pole, while Zhou and Ilott completed the scorers.

Post Race
Immediately after the race both Ghiotto and King were awarded five second time penalties for speeding behind the late SC, dumping them to sixth and seventh. However, both UNI-Virtuosi and MP Motorsport would appeal against the penalty, which was duly upheld after a post-race investigation. They were hence reinstated in fourth and sixth.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Ghiotto and King were both awarded five second time penalties for speeding behind the Safety Car, although this was rescinded after a post-race investigation.
 * † Gelael received a five second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
 * ‡ Boschung was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

 * Sixth career victory for Nicholas Latifi.
 * DAMS claimed their thirteenth win as an entrant in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
 * Also their 38th win at GP2/F2 level.

Standings
Nyck de Vries retained his lead in the Championship after the opening race at the Hungaroring, although his advantage had been reduced to 28 points. Nicholas Latifi had been the man to do the damage, although remained more than race's worth of points behind, while Luca Ghiotto had lost ground in third. Sérgio Sette Câmara and Jack Aitken completed the top five, while Guanyu Zhou was still the best placed rookie in the Championship in sixth.

In the Teams' Championship it was DAMS who once again ended the day as the best team in the field, a haul of 35 points putting them onto 295 points for the campaign. UNI-Virtuosi were next, but had slipped 54 points behind, while ART Grand Prix were in third, holding 198 points. Campos Racing were next ahead of Carlin, the last two teams in triple figures, while Trident remained at the foot of the table.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.