Oliver Rowland heads 1-2 finish for DAMS at Hungaroring

Oliver Rowland is the winner of the FIA Formula 2 Championship Feature race at Hungaroring what is his 2nd victory of the season. The DAMS driver was able to hold-off Artem Markelov in the final stage and to take the chequered flag.

Championship leader Charles Leclerc for the 7th time this season won the pole position but was dropped to the bottom of the grid after being disqualified when it was discovered that he was using a part which did not comply with the technical regulations. Oliver Rowland started from pole position while Artem Markelov was on P2.

Norman Nato stalled on the pre-grid and the start was then aborted after Nabil Jeffri missed his start box at the end of the formation lap. When the race finally started, Markelov took the lead from Rowland at Turn 1 while Leclerc made his way up to the 12th position. After five laps the gaps were very tight and the top 5 were within 2.5s.

When all drivers completed mandatory pit stop, with 14 laps to go, the standings at the top changed significantly. Rowland became the race leader with a strong advantage to Markelov, while Nicholas Latifi moved up to the 3rd position.

Nicholas Latifi finished 2nd in the Feature race at Hungaroring

Soon after, the safety car was deployed after contact between Robert Visoiu and Sergio Canamasas who both retired from the race while running in the points zone. With 10 laps to go, the race was restarted and it looked like that nothing gonna change. However, Markelov failed in an attempt to overtake Rowland on lap 33 went too wide and eventually retired.

Rowland won the race under the safety car, Latifi was 2nd in the first race of the weekend, while the Rapax team driver Nyck De Vries completed the podium, finishing ahead of Charles Leclerc.