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Hungary F2: Rowland takes dramatic win as Markelov crashes

Oliver Rowland converted his pole position into his maiden Formula 2 feature race win at the Hungaroring, as his closest challenger Artem Markelov suffered a big crash late in the race.

Winner Oliver Rowland, DAMS

Winner Oliver Rowland, DAMS

FIA Formula 2

Oliver Rowland, DAMS
Oliver Rowland, DAMS
Oliver Rowland, DAMS
Artem Markelov, RUSSIAN TIME
Oliver Rowland, DAMS
Oliver Rowland, DAMS
Start: Artem Markelov, RUSSIAN TIME leads

Markelov was attacking Rowland in the dying stages, and got close enough to run side-by-side on the main straight. But, as Rowland moved to the right to block, Markelov ran out of asphalt and went on the grass, losing control and crashing into the barriers.

Rowland, who inherited pole after Charles Leclerc was disqualified from qualifying for using an illegal part on his car, fell behind Markelov at the start, but regained the lead after pitting a lap earlier than the Russian.

As the majority of the field was on the early-stop strategy, only four drivers - Alex Albon, Leclerc, Sergio Sette Camara and Louis Deletraz - started on mediums and stayed out longer.

Starting from the penultimate position, Leclerc gained eight places to run 11th on Lap 2, and soon started to attack Albon, eventually making his way past the ART driver.

However, they were soon caught up by provisional leader Rowland, who quickly passed three cars and was behind Leclerc when the Ferrari junior finally stopped.

Having rejoined 11th, Leclerc soon gained two positions after Sergio Canamasas took Robert Visoiu out at Turn 1 while fighting for ninth.

A short subsequent safety car stint bunched the field up and Leclerc immediately picked up three spots on the restart, as he passed Luca Ghiotto and the duelling Jordan King and Gustav Malja.

At the front, Rowland had a good restart but was soon under pressure from Markelov, but the Russian's crash brought the safety car out again.

The race was not restarted, as Rowland and Nicholas Latifi completed a DAMS 1-2.

Latifi gained two places from sixth on the grid at the start and then passed Jordan King to spend the race behind Rowland and Markelov.

Nyck de Vries completed the podium as Leclerc made another move on Nobuharu Matsushita to claim fourth.

Matsushita was fifth, ahead of Luca Ghiotto and Norman Nato, who recovered from stalling before the formation lap.

Albon will start Sunday's sprint race from pole, having finished eighth ahead of Sean Gelael.

Haas F1 development driver Santino Ferrucci scored a point on his Formula 2 debut in 10th.

UPDATE: Gelael and Sergio Sette Camara were both given 10-second penalty for using DRS in the first two laps, the former losing ninth place as a result. In addition, Canamasas was given a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Visoiu.

Race 1 results

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