Gabriele Mini closes championship gap after taking victory in F2 Sprint Race in Hungary

Credit: Formula 2 via X

A clean race and strong pace from Gabriele Mini saw him take the win in Hungary in the Formula 2 Sprint Race at the Hungaroring, claiming his second win for the season.

How it happened

Off the line it was Sebastian Montoya who had a strong start maintaining his reverse grid pole position. Meanwhile, the remainder of the grid were wheel-to-wheel as cars ran two-to-three-wide around Hamiliton corner.

Into Lap 2, in his Alpine livery Mini held steady in second position maintaining a favourable pace securing the fastest lap, meanwhile championship rival Nikola Tsolov was close behind him after overtaking DAMS driver Dino Beganovic in the opening lap.

Lap 5 saw a majority of the grid within DRS of the car ahead, however a 2.5 second gap between INVICTA driver Joshua Durksen and Campos driver Noel Leon signalled a clear division between the front and back halves of the grid.

As DRS trains continued throughout Lap 7, Mini quickly closed in on Montoya maintaining less then half a second from the race leader and Lap 8 began, he attempted an overtake on Montoya but was unable to land the move.

In Lap 9 and 10, Sunday’s pole sitter Kush Maini expressed his desire to overtake ART teammate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak with his pace continuously increasing incrementally throughout the laps but was told to hold steady by his team.

In Lap 11, a slight mistake from Montoya into Turn 1 left him vulnerable, but he was able to recover, remaining as race leader.

As the halfway mark approached positions remained mostly unchanged with only the AIX teammates inverting positions in 21^st and 22^nd with Cian Shields making a move on Emerson Fittipaldi Jr.

In Lap 17, a lock up from Montoya in Turn 1 allowed Mini to find the gap needed to secure the race lead. Moreover, as the lap continued, Montoya found himself under pressure from Tsolov behind.

In Lap 19 it was pressure again between the two ART teammates with Maini overtaking Inthraphuvasak ahead, however the battle stayed close and consistent continuing into Lap 20 where only a second gap remained between the two.

In Lap 21, a late and bold move from Tsolov into Turn 1 saw contact between both him and Montoya. Whilst Tsolov suffered damage to his car dropping him to the back of the grid, the contact marked to end of the race for Montoya.

A yellow flag was called in Lap 22, followed by a virtual safety car. Whilst the Campos team attempted to amend the damage to Tsolov’s car in the pits, it was deemed undriveable and the championship leader was also out of the race.

With Montoya and Tsolov out, Beganovic and Trident driver Laurens Van Hoepen found themselves in second and third respectively.

In Lap 25 it was wheel-to-wheel between Durksen and Leon with a slight scare through Hamilton corner as Durksen scraped the gravel. However, the two remained unscathed and racing continued.

To end the race it was Mini in who crossed the line in first, followed by Beganovic in second and Van Hoepen in third to round out the podium.

What's next

The Formula 2 championship season continues in Hungary on Sunday for the Feature Race at 11:25am CEST at the Hungaroring with Kush Maini on pole.