F2 Hungary: Pourchaire reignites title battle with feature race victory

The ART driver lined up fourth, making his way up to second behind Marcus Armstrong before the pitstops.

But a slow stop for the Hitech driver allowed Pourchaire out ahead, taking the net lead ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi before picking off those ahead who were yet to stop.

Despite the Charouz driver closing the gap on the leader to just 1.2s by the final laps, he was unable to make it past for his maiden victory.

Pourchaire's win, with Drugovich finishing in ninth, closes the title fight to just 21 points going into the summer break, with four rounds remaining.

Fittipaldi settled for second, holding off polesitter Ayumu Iwasa despite making a mistake at the chicane on the last lap to take his second podium of the weekend.

Armstrong took the lead from Iwasa off the line, with the top four all running on the soft compound tyre, before Pourchaire passed the Japanese driver for second by Turn 3.

Title contender Logan Sargeant had a poor start, dropping six places off the line.

Fittipaldi was up to fifth by lap four, having started ninth, passing Frederik Vesti up the inside of Turn 3, while the ART driver was handed a five-second penalty for forcing another driver off the track.

Armstrong had a 1.6s gap to Pourchaire by lap six, with Iwasa looking at second place but staying behind the Frenchman.

Drugovich was first to pit for medium tyres on lap seven, as did Jehan Daruvala (Prema), exiting into 19th place.

The move prompted the top three to pit the following lap with Pourchaire and Iwasa emerging in front of Armstrong to take the net top two, the New Zealander missing out courtesy of his location in the pitlane.

Pourchaire and Iwasa also emerged ahead of Drugovich, the former taking 16th on the road as his title rival fell back.

Drugovich passed Armstrong the following lap, with Fittipaldi pitting as Vesti took the lead on the road.

A quick stop for the Charouz man put him back out behind Pourchaire but ahead of Iwasa, despite him having asked to pit the lap before, and igniting a battle for net second.

Dennis Hauger pitted for the soft tyres on lap 19, the Prema driver having struggled on the medium tyres and forced into an earlier-than-ideal stop.
Pourchaire continued to move through those yet to stop, passing David Beckmann at Turn 1 for seventh place on the road, while Drugovich closed in on Iwasa.

Armstrong took net fourth from Drugovich on lap 23, the MP Motorsport driver struggling with the medium tyres.

Vesti pitted three laps later and served his five-second penalty, emerging eighth, while Juri Vips pitted behind him and came out 10th, with both struggling to get temperature into their tyres and locking up.

Sargeant pitted on lap 27, rejoining in 17th, while Vips retook ninth from Daruvala up ahead as Vesti passed a yet-to-pit Amaury Cordeel (Van Amersfoort) for sixth two laps later.

Vesti was on the back of Drugovich in the closing laps, eventually passing him at Turn 14 on lap 31 as spots of rain began to fall around the circuit, before Vips did the same at Turn 2 the following lap.

Richard Verschoor was next to pass Drugovich, demoting the championship leader to ninth, while up ahead Vesti passed Armstrong just two laps from the end to take fourth.

Vips followed suit on the penultimate lap to secure fifth, with his teammate settling for sixth, as Lawson made it past Verschoor for seventh.

Jack Doohan, who started 10th, retired in the opening laps having suffered a mechanical issue.

Cla	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix
2	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	3.600
3	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	5.900
4	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	6.700
5	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	9.600
6	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	13.500
7	Liam Lawson	Carlin	14.700
8	Richard Verschoor	Trident	20.100
9	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	28.600
10	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	29.200
11	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	42.400
12	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	42.800
13	Cem Bolukbasi	Charouz Racing System	45.700
14	David Beckmann	Van Amersfoort Racing	47.400
15	Marino Sato	UNI-Virtuosi	47.600
16	Roy Nissany	DAMS	48.300
17	Calan Williams	Trident	51.200
18	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort Racing	56.000
19	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	1'17.900
20	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing
21	Roberto Merhi	Campos Racing
22	Jack Doohan	UNI-Virtuosi
View full results