Antonio Giovinazzi moved up to second in the championship standings after securing the runners-up spot during Saturday’s GP2 Feature race at the Hungaroring, finishing behind team-mate Pierre Gasly for a third Prema Racing 1-2 of 2016.
The Italian made a great start to move ahead of Sergey Sirotkin into the first turn that proved critical as the Russian could not find a way back ahead, but Giovinazzi was unable to much about the pace of his team-mate ahead of him.
“It was a good race, with a clean start that allowed me to overtake Sirotkin before the first corner,” said Giovinazzi after Saturday’s race. “After that, we had a good pace with the option tyres and after the pit stop I exited with the same gap from Pierre.
“With the prime tyres the balance of the car was very good. In the end I tried to push and put some additional pressure on Pierre but it was too late. A very good job by the team again with another 1-2 finish.”
Giovinazzi admitted the mistake that saw him hit Nobuharu Matsushita at turn one that not only forced him to pit with a broken front wing but also earned him a ten-second time penalty.
The Italian was able only to pass Nabil Jeffri during the race as he made an attempt to move forward to finish on the road in sixteenth, although he dropped back to seventeenth behind the Malaysian due to his penalty.
“Unfortunately today’s race turned out as a pretty disappointing one for me,” said Giovinazzi on Sunday. “After a great start, I made a mistake in turn 1 as I braked a little too late. That resulted in a contact with Matsushita. For this reason, I had to pit for a new wing.
“It’s a pity to have jeopardized my race at the first lap but now we have to be back in shape to score some good results in next weekend’s round at Hockenheim.”
