Sergey Sirotkin finally secured his first victory of the season as a great start from sixth on the grid to second at the start gave him a good base before making a brave move around the outside of Jordan King at turn three saw him take the lead, a position he would comfortably hold until the chequered flag.
The Sprint race at the Hungaroring was neutralised early when Arthur Pic spun at turn two that ultimately saw four drivers retire with damage, with Nobuharu Matsushita, Luca Ghiotto and Alex Lynn all getting tangled up in the ensuing carnage and retiring along with Pic, while Gustav Malja trailed back to the pits with a missing front wing.
Antonio Giovinazzi was handed a ten-second time penalty for tagging Matsushita in the incident that propelled the Japanese racer into the outside barrier, which brought out the safety car at the Hungaroring, but the Italian pitted just as the safety car headed back into the pits to replace his own damaged front wing, eliminating himself from the fight for points.
King and Sirotkin battled cleanly for the lead, with the Russian driver making a great move around the outside of turn three and confirming the move on the inside of turn four, and despite the duo trading fastest laps, Sirotkin had the race in his pocket and became the ninth different winner in twelve races in 2016.
King ultimately finished second ahead of Racing Engineering team-mate Norman Nato, who held off the challenge of Russian Time’s Artem Markelov until the chequered flag for his first podium finish since the Feature race at Monaco in May.
Markelov had made a good move into turn one to displace Mitch Evans early in the race, with the Campos Racing driver being forced to settle for fifth ahead of MP Motorsport’s Oliver Rowland, with Feature race winner Pierre Gasly of Prema Racing and Raffaele Marciello of Russian Time completing the points scorers.
Carlin’s Sergio Canamasas just missed out on points in ninth, but was under investigation for forcing another driver off the track as he battled for position, while Sean Gelael completed the top ten for Campos Racing.
Hungaroring Sprint Race Result
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