Championship leader Charles Leclerc lost pole in qualifying, after it was revealed that he was using a part on the car that did not conform to the technical regulations. The penalty allowed Oliver Rowland to start the feature race in top spot, alongside title competitor Artem Markelov.
Oliver Rowland:
“This morning was positive in free practice, hopefully tomorrow we can fight at the start, at the start of the year we were too far behind but now we can, so the focus has to be on the start and hopefully we’ll be good in the race, as usual.”
Feature race
Oliver Rowland landed the result he was looking for after winning a frenzied FIA Formula 2 feature race at the Hungaroring.
The 24-year-old held on for victory even though initially losing the lead, surviving a late onslaught from Artem Markelov to secure victory ahead of DAMS teammate Nicholas Latifi and Nyck De Vries.
In an enthralling race, Rowland was made to work by Markelov and Latifi but secured his second win of the season, after an anxious late battle.
The win moves the Briton closer to championship leader Charles Leclerc recording a time of 58:37.062s.
Oliver Rowland:
“I’m now second in the championship, I’ve closed the gap a little bit to Charles, but we’ve still got a bit of work to do on qualifying. As a team and a car the result of the 1-2 shows we’ve come a long way and done a good job.
“I had a bit of bad luck in Baku when I broke down when I was leading, but I think the qualifying recently has been extremely positive, so I’m quite happy.”
Sprint race
In the sprint race Japanese driver Nobuharu Matsushita soared to victory at Hungaroring. The ART Grand Prix driver steamed ahead of the field to win by over 4 seconds from Oliver Rowland.
Second place concluded an outstanding weekend for Rowland, with the DAMS driver managing a great late race pass on the outside of Dutch racing driver Nyck de Vries ensuring he had his finest weekend in the championship so far.
Ferrari F1 junior and championship leader Charles Leclerc managed to secure fourth, ahead of Norman Nato and Nicolas Latifi, meaning his championship lead has now been cut to 50 points over Rowland.
Oliver Rowland:
“What a fantastic weekend. 1st and 2nd over the two races, it doesn't get much better than that.”
“After Silverstone I was disappointed with myself after race 2 as there were too many errors on my part, probably because it was my home race and I was enthusiastic. But it was starting to get to the stage where Charles was gone and that I was fighting for 2nd, and I didn’t want to believe that. Obviously anything can happen, and after this weekend we’re right back in there: we’re not quite with him but we’re closing, and if we keep this pace we can challenge him to the end of the year.”