Hungaroring F3: Ticktum gets maiden win after investigation

Ticktum led away from the line on a track dampened by earlier rain, but a sensational start from Marcus Armstrong, who had qualified fifth, carried the New Zealander into the lead at Turn 1.

As Prema driver Armstrong turned in on the inside line, his left-rear wheel made contact with the right-front wing of Macau Grand Prix winner Ticktum’s Motopark machine.

Armstrong immediately started losing places with a puncture, and pitted at the end of lap one – he made a speculative switch to wet-weather tyres, before calling it a day two laps later.

Ticktum was investigated for the contact, but was later exonerated by stewards.

Due to the earlier rain, those in the even-numbered grid positions off the racing line suffered a wetter track at the start. 

For the second race running, Alex Palou appeared to stall on a slippery circuit from a front-row start, and the Hitech GP driver plummeted down the field.

By contrast, Prema’s Ralf Aron made a rocket start from his drier seventh grid position, emerged from a three-abreast moment with teammates Mick Schumacher and Guan Yu Zhou down to Turn 1 to move into third, and then moved past the stricken Armstrong into second.

Aron had no answer to the pace of Ticktum, and was one of three drivers – the others being Sebastian Fernandez and Artem Petrov – to be awarded a five-second penalty for a jumped start. 

The Estonian couldn’t pull away sufficiently from fellow Prema drivers Zhou, Robert Shwartzman and Schumacher and was demoted to fifth - which means Ticktum claims the championship lead, by half a point from Aron.

Ferdinand Habsburg made a rapid start from 11th on the grid to get up to fifth on lap one, then pulled off a great move on Shwartzman to briefly take fourth – around the outside into the Turns 6/7 chicane.

But minor contact between the pair punctured Carlin driver Habsburg’s right-rear tyre, and he was forced to the pits. 

Motopark rookie Juri Vips was elevated to sixth, with a comfortable buffer to the Hitech machine of Enaam Ahmed.

Gradually Ahmed reeled in Vips so that he was on his tail with three laps remaining, but he was unable to find a way past – and in turn pre-race championship leader Sacha Fenestraz closed in with his Carlin car in the closing stages.

Hitech’s Ben Hingeley survived an early battle with Jonathan Aberdein, who spun at Turn 1, to take ninth, with Fabio Scherer (Motopark) claiming the final point.

Race results:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Dan Ticktum	Motopark	36'07.068
2	Guan Yu Zhou	Prema Powerteam	7.514
3	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	8.792
4	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	9.454
5	Ralf Aron	Prema Powerteam	10.289
6	Juri Vips	Motopark	17.256
7	Enaam Ahmed	Hitech GP	17.986
8	Sacha Fenestraz	Carlin	18.553
9	Ben Hingeley	Hitech GP	25.007
10	Fabio Scherer	Motopark	29.931
11	Nikita Troitskiy	Carlin	30.809
12	Alex Palou	Hitech GP	32.201
13	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	35.708
14	Sebastian Fernandez	Motopark	42.523
15	Marino Sato	Motopark	44.830
16	Keyvan Andres	Van Amersfoort Racing	47.113
17	Jonathan Aberdein	Motopark	48.317
18	Devlin Defrancesco	Carlin	50.203
19	Ameya Vaidyanathan	Carlin	51.796
20	Artem Petrov	Van Amersfoort Racing	54.189
21	Petru Florescu	Fortec	1'05.047
Ret	Julian Hanses	ma-con	-
Ret	Ferdinand Habsburg	Carlin	-
Ret	Marcus Armstrong	Prema Powerteam	-