GP2 – Hungary – Race 1: Alex Lynn and Pierre Gasly achieve a one-two finish for DAMS

The pressure was on the shoulders of the GP3 champion as he knew that Stoffel Vandoorne would attempt to pass him at the start to resume his victorious march, interrupted at Silverstone. However, it was the Belgian who missed his start. This allowed Pierre Gasly, Arthur Pic, and Raffaele Marciello to overtake the championship leader.

He therefore chose to stop as soon as the regulatory window opened to adopt a different strategy from his rivals. However, the pit stop didn’t go as well as planned because the stewards ruled that his team had released him in an unsafe manner. This resulted in a five-second penalty that would be added at the end of the race. A suspenseful end of the race was looming, and we were not disappointed.

Thus, when Alex Lynn finally stopped on the 23rd lap, he was overtaken by numerous drivers. He then challenged the reputation that it is impossible to overtake on the Hungarian circuit. He managed to overtake Arthur Pic, Alexander Rossi, and Rio Haryanto. He then found himself right behind Stoffel Vandoorne. He could have simply stayed behind the ART Grand Prix driver since the latter’s penalty would allow him to secure the victory.

But the protégé of Williams decided to claim his first victory in GP2 on the track. He capitalized on his fresher tires to get the better of his rival with five laps to go. The Belgian thus found himself under threat from the other drivers on fresh tires. While attempting to fend off attacks from Rio Haryanto, it was ultimately Pierre Gasly who managed to overtake both drivers at once with two laps remaining.

But the battle on the track was not going to stop there as Sergey Sirotkin also aimed to stand on the podium. To do this, he attempted a maneuver on the Indonesian driver with just two corners to go. Although it was successful, it was quite aggressive as he took off the front wing of his opponent’s car. The stewards had no objections, and the Russian was able to enjoy another podium finish.

In the end, Stoffel Vandoorne finished 5th, which still allows him to increase his lead in the championship. He is followed by Jordan King and Raffaele Marciello. Nobuharu Matsushita managed an impressive comeback as he started 21st and finished in a strong 8th place. This puts the Japanese driver in an ideal position for tomorrow as he will start from pole position. Robert Visoiu and Daniel De Jong completed the top 10.