F2: Marti won the sprint in Hungary

      Jose-Maria Marti won the Formula 2 sprint race in Hungary on Saturday. He was joined on the podium by Alex Dann and Jack Crawford.

      By the time the Formula 2 race started at Hungaroring, the weather had cleared, air temperature rose to +28°C, and the asphalt heated up to +47°C. Pole-sitter Jose-Maria Marti maintained his lead, while Arvid Lindblad overtook Alex Dann for second place at the first turn.

      Crawford started well, moving up from eighth to fifth. Romain Stanek, the winner of Friday’s qualifying, had an unsuccessful start — he made contact with Gabriele Mini during the first lap. Both cars went off the track. They were able to continue, but Stanek dropped to twentieth, while Mini received a 10-second penalty.

      Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli gained two positions to seventh.

      Lindblad began pressuring Marti and set the best lap time on lap five out of twenty-eight. On lap eight, Lindblad attacked at the first turn, passing his teammate from Campos Racing, but in the third turn, Marti counterattacked, slightly forcing his opponent off the track, regaining the lead.

      Mid-race, the peloton remained grouped tightly, but no one made active moves to preserve tires for a late-race attack.

      On lap sixteen, Amori Cordil overtook Rafael Villagomez and during the move, broke Villagomez’s left side of the front wing’s endplate. At the end of lap seventeen, Mini pitted for a penalty and tire change.

      On lap nineteen, Dann overtook Lindblad at the braking zone of the first turn to take second place. Lindblad’s tires began losing effectiveness, and by lap twenty-one, he lagged behind the leaders by three seconds, trailing a dense chasing group.

      On lap twenty-two, a safety car was deployed due to Sebastián Montoya, who stopped on the start straight because of technical issues. During safety car deployment, the leaders, including Marti, slowed sharply, and Dann, unaware, nearly rear-ended his rival.

      The race restart occurred on lap twenty-six. The leaders maintained their positions, and Lindblad narrowly fended off Crawford’s attack. Victor Martin challenged Luke Braining for fifth but was unsuccessful.

      On the final lap, Crawford made another attempt to pass Lindblad at the first turn, and this time, succeeded. In the final turns, Dann tried to pass Marti and nearly spun out but couldn't overtake the leader, who won the race. However, post-race stewards will review the incident involving Marti and Dann under yellow flags.

      Fornaroli finished seventh and maintained the championship lead, but Dann, Crawford, and Braining reduced the gap. Mini set the fastest lap, finishing fourteenth.

      Post-race, stewards reviewed several violations and penalized drivers, leading to a revision of the race results.

      Arvid Lindblad, who finished fourth, received a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits and gaining an advantage while overtaking Victor Martin. Similarly, Luke Braining, who finished fifth, received the same penalty for passing Martin outside track limits.

      Stewards found no violations in the actions of Jose-Maria Marti and Alex Dann during the safety car period, so their positions remained unchanged.