Oliver Rowland had his best weekend of his FIA Formula 2 Championship career as he took a race victory and a second place finish at the Hungaroring, which saw him edge closer to Charles Leclerc in the championship standings.
For the first time in 2017, the DAMS driver was able to gain ground on Leclerc in both races, with Rowland withstanding the pressure and a late race attack from Artem Markelov that saw the Briton investigated after the Russian crashed out after making a late move heading into turn one.
Markelov shadowed Rowland for much of the afternoon, but the Russian went onto the grass and lost control of his Russian Time machine, allowing The Briton to lead home team-mate Nicholas Latifi to the chequered flag behind the safety car, while another strong drive on Sunday saw him finish second, making some great moves on Luca Ghiotto and Nyck de Vries in the process.
“Practice and qualifying went very well,” said Rowland. “It was my first pole position at this level and I was confident of scoring a good amount of points in the two races.
“It doesn’t get much better than this. The performance of the team has been exceptional, so I’m very happy. Now the focus is to continue this form into Spa-Francorchamps after the break and challenge for the title.”