GP2 Hungary: Alex Lynn takes the maiden feature race win
DAMS Racing took the 1-2 as Alex Lynn won the race ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly in Hungary. The race started with pole bearer Alex Lynn keeping his lead, while Stoffel Vandoorne dropped to fifth. Pierre Gasly had a fantastic start and went up to second before turn 1.
In lap 2, after making contact with Latifi in the chicane, Sergio Canamasas went off track and hit the barrier, causing a safety car. During lap 5, the race restarted and the restart was marked by Jordan King attacking Sergey Sirotkin and Mitch Evans defending from Rio Haryanto. Richie Stanaway was forced to the pits due to front wing damage. On lap 7, Vandoorne pitted to switch tires to Medium compound and faced a 5-second unsafe release penalty In lap 9 Pic went to the box, restarting at the very back after a slow stop.
Halfway into the race, Rene Binder was forced to the pits due to blocked DRS, Alex Lynn still didn’t pit, while Stoffel Vandoorne was on tenth after two drivers started making their late pit stops. On lap 20, Lynn’s radio revealed that the pit is expected on lap 25 and that the Briton had to push to increase his lead over Vandoorne.
On lap 21, Sirotkin and King battled but the Russian kept the attacker off and remained on fourth. Alex Lynn pitted on lap 24, restarting nine seconds behind Vandoorne. Lynn made a move on Pic and Rossi which cleared the way for him to enter top three, behind Vandoorne and Haryanto.
By lap 30, Vandoorne had a 2.3s lead over Haryanto, but was still facing his penalty and had to push harder with seven laps to go, while Alex Lynn lost time on lap 29 when he pushed too hard trying to close the gap. In lap 31, Lynn made an outside move on Haryanto, and on lap 33, he overtook Vandoorne as well and went to the lead. In the meantime, Sirotkin managed to overtake Rossi, thus entering top five.
In the penultimate lap, Gasly went up to second, leaving Haryanto on third. In the last lap, Sirotkin and Haryanto collided, but Sirotkin managed to climb up to third. Vandoorne gave up and finished the race on fifth, in front of King, Marciello, sprint race pole winner Matsushita, Visoiu and De Jong in top ten.
