Arthur Pic took his first GP2 Series victory after a late safety car played into the hands of the Frenchman in the Feature race at the Hungaroring. The Campos Racing driver started on the soft tyre and was able to capitalise from the crash of Sergio Canamasas and Nathanael Berthon to hold on for the win.
At the start, pole sitter Felipe Nasr of Carlin led away, with EQ8 Caterham Racing stand-in driver Tom Dillmann holding second until Jolyon Palmer of DAMS managed to fight his way past, and the two main championship contenders pulled comfortably away from the Frenchman, who struggled to get heat into his tyres in the early laps.
All the work done to pull away for Nasr and Palmer was for nothing as the safety car was brought out early when a clash between the Campos Racing machine of Kimiya Sato and Stephane Richelmi resulted in the second DAMS machine crashing heavily into the barriers.
Pic was amongst the drivers to take his compulsory pit stop under safety car conditions, and the Frenchman was able to run at a strong enough pace to take the lead when the drivers on the medium tyres began to pit.
Stefano Coletti was able to take second for Racing Engineering after surviving an early clash with the Carlin of Julian Leal, having started fifteenth on the grid and making the same tyre strategy as the race winner. Likewise, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was able to take his first podium of the season in third for Rapax, just ahead of Japanese driver Takuya Izawa of ART Grand Prix, who started right at the back of the field.
All four drivers were able to hold on with older Medium tyres despite Palmer and Nasr having fresh soft tyres after the crash between the Trident Racing entry of Canamasas and the Venezuela GP Lazarus machine of Berthon that saw the safety car deployed. Canamasas required some medical attention at the side of the road.
Palmer managed to take fifth with fresh soft tyres on the final laps after the safety car, managing to finally get passed Nasr and also the Hilmer Motorsport machine of Daniel Abt. Abt was able to keep Nasr behind him to take sixth, while eighth place and the Sprint race pole on Sunday went to the second Racing Engineering machine of Raffaele Marciello. It was a case of what might have been for the Italian however, as he was ahead of Pic after his pit stop before being handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Stoffel Vandoorne was ninth for ART Grand Prix after being held up by Dillmann for most of the race, while the final point went to Berthon after being able to continue after his clash with Canamasas.
A dejected Rio Haryanto was on course for second behind Pic but lost the left rear tyre of his EQ8 Caterham Racing machine behind the safety car a few laps before the end.
Hungaroring Feature Race Result
POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/Laps |
1 | Arthur Pic | FRA | Campos Racing | 1h00.18.627s |
2 | Stefano Coletti | MON | Racing Engineering | +2.787s |
3 | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | GBR | Rapax | +3.151s |
4 | Takuya Izawa | JAP | ART Grand Prix | +3.661s |
5 | Jolyon Palmer | GBR | DAMS | +3.828s |
6 | Daniel Abt | GER | Hilmer Motorsport | +5.111s |
7 | Felipe Nasr | BRZ | Carlin | +5.190s |
8 | Raffaele Marciello | ITA | Racing Engineering | +5.954s |
9 | Stoffel Vandoorne | BEL | ART Grand Prix | +6.213s |
10 | Nathanael Berthon | FRA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | +7.038s |
11 | Tom Dillmann | FRA | EQ8 Caterham Racing | +7.605s |
12 | Marco Sorensen | DEN | MP Motorsport | +8.102s |
13 | Simon Trummer | SWI | Rapax | +8.398s |
14 | Mitch Evans | NZL | RT Russian Time | +8.756s |
15 | Conor Daly | USA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | +11.641s |
16 | Daniel de Jong | NED | MP Motorsport | +13.436s |
17 | Andre Negrao | BRZ | Arden International | +14.224s |
18 | Artem Markelov | RUS | RT Russian Time | +15.944s |
19 | Jon Lancaster | GBR | Hilmer Motorsport | +16.066s |
20 | Rene Binder | AUT | Arden International | +1 Lap |
RET | Rio Haryanto | INO | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 30 Laps |
RET | Sergio Canamasas | ESP | Trident Racing | 29 Laps |
RET | Johnny Cecotto Jr | VEN | Trident Racing | 22 Laps |
RET | Kimiya Sato | JAP | Campos Racing | 10 Laps |
RET | Stephane Richelmi | MON | DAMS | 5 Laps |
RET | Julian Leal | COL | Carlin | 5 Laps |