Martí “wasn’t really worried” on his way to F2 sprint win in Hungary

Written by Vyas Ponnuri

Campos racer Pepe Martí said he “wasn’t really worried” as he cruised to his third sprint win of 2025 in F2’s Hungarian sprint, which got hectic towards the end as the top two squabbled over track position in the final sector on the last lap. 

Martí managed his tyres the best to win the F2 sprint in Hungary | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool

Martí, who led the grid away from reverse grid pole for the sprint, effectively covered off the start from Alex Dunne’s Rodin Motorsport machine, paving the way for teammate Arvid Lindblad to take second on the road, and make it a Campos 1-2 for the time being. 

Lindblad kept the Spaniard earnest in the early stages of the race, even going for a move into Turn 1 early on in the race. But Martí kept his cool to retake the race lead heading into Turns 2 and 3, never relinquishing the position after that. 

Speaking on his battle with Lindblad, the sprint winner mentioned how he wasn’t too flustered, and knew the race would play out in his favour. 

“I was just looking in my mirror, and I saw Alex (Dunne) was like 1.5 seconds behind us, and Arvid (Lindblad) was literally on my gearbox for most of the race.

And we know it's a deg (tyre degradation) race, so I wasn't really worried in that sense. I knew that if Arvid was wanting to push a lot at the beginning, then I knew it was going to be okay for me at the end. But yeah, then when he made a move, it was a solid move into Turn 1, and I just recovered it well into Turn 2. It was fair racing,” Martí said.

Addressing DIVEBOMB and other select media post the sprint race, the Campos racer described his sprint race as “pretty chill”, mentioning he knew the pace he had to drive to. 

“Yeah, I mean, I only really had two moments where I was doubting that I was going to win.

The first was when Arvid (Lindblad) launched in Turn 1, and then when I decided to go skating into Turn 5 in the last lap. 

“Other than that, the race was pretty chill. I mean, I was pretty much in control the whole way.

I knew what pace to run, and more or less what I should do to defend well from the guys behind. But yeah, just had a few small moments,” Martí concluded, summing up his race to victory. 

Martí fended off Lindblad and Dunne to win the sprint | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool

As evidenced by teammate Lindblad’s tyres dropping off during the race, the Hungaroring was certainly not an easy track for the drivers and their tyres. Martí mentioned how his understanding of what he needs to do helps him in such races where tyres face higher degradation 

“You start the race and you feel the tyres shredding in lap one. And you just say, okay, there's 28 laps. I probably should slow down; otherwise, I'm not going to make it.

“So yes, it literally comes down to feeling. I think that's why I normally do really well in these high degradation races. Because I'm able to understand quite well what the tyre needs, what it doesn't need, and just drive around the issues. That's normally why I go forward. Just the tyres, you can sort of feel it,” Martí said, speaking of his critical tyre management strength. 

The Red Bull junior would feel the pressure from the chasing Dunne as the race entered its closing stages. With a late race safety car deployed for the stranded PREMA Racing car of Sebastián Montoya, Martí suddenly slowed down before the start/finish line, almost catching Dunne out. The McLaren junior had to dart to the right to avoid running into the Spaniard on the main straight. 

With the incident noted by race control, both drivers were called to the stewards room after the race, with the Campos racer noted for ‘erratic driving’.

When asked about the ‘brake check’ move, Martí duly delved into the technicalities, explaining his situation with the delta time triggered by the safety car being called out just as he was about to finish his lap. 

“It was never a brake check,” Martí said. It's just the delta (time) is changing like that. Every time we go to a different track, the delta behaves differently.

I got to the main straight, and I was following at normal speed. I changed micro sectors, and all of a sudden, my micro sector was minus 1.2 red. If I crossed the next panel in red, I would get a 10-second penalty. But then if I slow down too slowly, I get a penalty. If I slow down too quickly, I might brake-check Alex (Dunne),” the Spanish racer concluded, breaking down the situation. 

However, the major talking point was the last-lap battle between Martí and Dunne. Having slithered wide on his now-ageing medium tyres, Martí drove all out to hold on to the race lead, fending off a late charge from Dunne in the final sector. 

When asked by DIVEBOMB about their final lap battle, Martí said he knew how to defend from Dunne behind, having raced with the Irishman during their go-kart days, and gathered an idea of the drivers and their driving style. 

“Yeah, I mean, obviously we know each other from go-karts. So, I know how Alex (Dunne) races. And obviously, I think here we all respect each other a lot. So we know what each guy is going to do,” Martí said, speaking of his last lap scrap. 

The Campos racer will be looking to continue his form into Sunday’s 37-lap Feature Race, starting 10th on the grid, as he aims to take a podium and continue building on his F2 campaign.