De Vries beats Norris in wet-dry Hungary F2 feature race thriller

Nyck de Vries passed a recovering Lando Norris to claim his second win of the 2018 Formula 2 season in Hungary on Saturday as championship leader George Russell retired early on.

The Prema driver spent the early part of the race race squabbling over second place in wet conditions at the Hungaroring, but as the track dried out and the field swapped onto slick Pirelli tyres at mid-distance, de Vries lit up the timesheets as he closed the gap to runaway leader Norris.

Carlin’s Norris was masterful in the wet as he scythed his way into a remarkable race lead, despite losing ground with a sluggish start. The McLaren Formula 1 reserve opened up a 14-second advantage before pitting for Mediums, when the advantage swung to de Vries. 

Despite being passed by Norris earlier in the race, de Vries obliterated the Briton’s lead by lapping around two seconds per lap faster. By Lap 26, de Vries was on the back of Norris’ gearbox and primed to make the race-winning move, which he pulled off by slicing up the inside of Norris following a better exit out of the chicane. 

De Vries’ continued his stunning pace to charge into a 16.5s lead over Norris, who  struggled with tyre life and ultimately settled for second place. The result sees him reduce Russell’s advantage to 19 points in the drivers’ standings.

The Mercedes F1 junior suffered a setback to his title hopes when mechanical gremlins meant he was unable to take his fourth place grid position. Russell rejoined the action from the pitlane on the second lap, before pulling into retirement at mid-distance. 

Polesitter Sergio Sette Camara led the early stages and crossed the line in third, but was stripped of his podium after being slapped with an immediate 10-second  time penalty for colliding with Antonio Fuoco at the penultimate corner on the final lap. 

The Brazilian’s penalty promoted the Charouz Racing System driver onto the final rostrum spot and ART Grand Prix’s Jack Aitken up to fourth, while Alexander Albon and Luca Ghiotto also profited to move up one position each into fifth and sixth respectively, with Camara dropping back to seventh. 

Russian Time’s Artem Markelov finished eighth to claim reverse grid pole for Sunday’s sprint race, ahead of teammate Tadasuke Makino and Nirei Fukuzumi, who rounded out the top 10. 

Click here for full F2 Hungary Feature Race Results.