Latifi closes on De Vries with Hungaroring win

Nicholas Latifi put his championship challenge back on track with victory from third on the grid in the F2 feature race at the Hungaroring.

Championship points leader Nyck de Vries took pole position for the race in a rain-hit session yesterday, with fellow front row occupant Luca Ghiotto a few tenths behind. De Vries made a decent start and looked set to hold his advantage into turn one, but a lock-up opened the door for Latifi.

Juan Manuel Correa, Jordan King, Anthonine Hubert, Ralph Boschung and Sean Gelael all deviated from the normal strategy by picking the medium tyres instead of softs. Both Hubert – who had been penalised to start 18th following an infringement in qualifying – and King were able to make their way to leading the race after the front-runners pitted.

However, with the drivers behind having already pitted, Latifi had the effective lead by half way through the race. This was despite a series of failures causing Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car periods.

Louis Deletraz retired just three laps in, prompting a few laps under Safety Car. The leaders made their first round of pit stops after that, which allowed Jack Aitken to close on the final podium place by leapfrogging Mick Schumacher and Luca Ghiotto.

Arjun Maini hit trouble on lap 19 and then a spectacular engine failure on Boschung’s car in the final laps ensured the race finished behind the Safety Car. Boschung’s car dumped oil at the exit of turn four, which caused the following F1 practice session to be delayed.

Latifi crossed the line in the lead, while De Vries minimised the damage with second and Aitken stayed in touch with third. Sergio Sette Camara claimed third ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita, who worked his way past Ghiotto, and former leader King. Schumacher ended a frustrating race eighth, but claimed the partial reverse grid pole for Sunday, followed by Guanyu Zhou and Callum Ilott.

Latifi and De Vries, despite leading the title standings, surprisingly had not shared a podium up until today. De Vries maintains the lead, with 192 points to Latifi’s 164.

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