Pourchaire cuts Drugovich’s lead to 21 points with Hungaroring feature race win

Theo Pourchaire took advantage of a rapid start and a quick pit stop by his team to win the Formula 2 feature race and cut Felipe Drugovich’s championship lead.

The ART driver moved up to second place at the start and then got ahead of Marcus Armstrong in the pits. That put him in the net lead of the race, and once the others had completed their pit stop he was never headed.

Enzo Fittipaldi finished second with pole-winner Ayumu Iwasa third. Drugovich could only manage a ninth place finish for two points, leaving his championship lead looking vulnerable as the series heads into the summer break.

When the lights went out, Iwasa was immediately beaten off the line by fellow front row starter Armstrong, who took the lead on the run down to the first corner. Pourchaire also gained a place over Iwasa to move into second.

As the field navigated the first sector relatively safely, Jack Doohan suddenly slowed and fell to the back of the pack with an apparent problem. Yesterday’s winner circulated for a couple of laps in the hopes of finding a solution to the problem, until he eventually had to pull into the pits to retire.

Iwasa stuck with Pourchaire and tried to pressure him for second, while, further back, Enzo Fittipaldi passed Frederick Vesti around the outside of turn two for fifth place. Iwasa pulled alongside the ART on the outside approaching turn two on lap seven, but Pourchaire successfully fended off the assault.

Eventually the leaders made their pit stop on the ninth lap, with leader Armstrong, Pourchaire and Iwasa all stopping together. ART released Pourchaire fast enough to see him get ahead of Armstrong and take the next lead of the race, with Iwasa also jumping the Hitech driver into second.

Having stayed out for two extra laps on very grained front tyres, Fittipaldi eventually pitted on lap 11 and rejoined the circuit behind Pourchaire and ahead of Iwasa in a net second place. Iwasa fought hard to get ahead of Fittipaldi, but soon had to absorb pressure from Felipe Drugovich behind.

Vesti took over the lead of the race on track, pushing his mediums as long as he could. Eventually, he pitted on lap 26, handing the lead to Liam Lawson who was still yet to stop. Three laps later, Lawson finally boxed, allowing Pourchaire to inherit the lead of the race for the first time with Fittipaldi and Iwasa behind.

The clouds over the Hungaroring started to sprinkle light drops of rain on the circuit, but not enough to cause serious difficulties for drivers. On fresh soft tyres, Vesti began to rise up the order, passing Drugovich and Armstrong to move into fourth and begin to reel in Iwasa ahead.

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Out front, Pourchaire kept his cool and checked off the remaining laps to take the chequered flag and his third win of the season. Fittipaldi appeared to suffer a loss of power on the final lap and dropped seconds to Pourchaire on the final lap, but held on to cross the line and take second place, with Iwasa completing the podium by keeping ahead of the rapid Vesti over the final laps.

Juri Vips finished fifth, passing team mate Armstrong in the later laps. Lawson claimed seventh ahead of Richard Verschoor, with Drugovich added just two points to his championship tally in ninth. Logan Sargeant rounded out the points in tenth place.

The result sees Drugovich’s lead in the championship halve from 44 points to 21 with just four rounds and eight races remaining.

Formula 2 Hungary race two results

Position	Car	Driver	Team
1	10	Theo Pourchaire	ART
2	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz
3	17	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS
4	9	Frederik Vesti	ART
5	8	Juri Vips	Hitech
6	7	Marcus Armstrong	Hitech
7	5	Liam Lawson	Carlin
8	20	Richard Verschoor	Trident
9	11	Felipe Drugovich	MP
10	6	Logan Sargeant	Carlin
11	2	Jehan Daruvala	Prema
12	12	Clement Novalak	MP
13	23	Cem Bolukbasi	Charouz
14	24	David Beckmann	Van Amersfoort
15	4	Marino Sato	Virtuosi
16	16	Roy Nissany	DAMS
17	21	Calan Williams	Trident
18	25	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort
19	1	Dennis Hauger	Prema
DNF	14	Olli Caldwell	Campos
DNF	15	Roberto Merhi	Campos
DNF		Jack Doohan	Virtuosi

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