Gunther takes victory in first Hungaroring race
Maximilian Gunther takes the lead of the championship with a third consecutive win. It was a
It was a lights to flag victory for Gunther, who finished the first race at the Hungaroring nearly six seconds ahead of Jake Hughes in second.
A first lap incident between Ralf Aron and Pedro Piquet brought out the virtual safety car. Aron was trying to find a way past Piquet when he ran into the back of the Van Amersfoort driver. Aron was left stranded in the gravel, leading to the virtual safety car. Piquet was able to return to the pits, but used the rest of the race as a test session.
Gunther shot away from the rest of the field on the restart and was left untroubled for the rest of the race. The race win follows two at Pau last month and puts him into the lead of the championship.
Jehan Daruvala spent the majority of the race trying to find a way past Hughes for second. Joey Mawson later joined the battle having taken Callum Ilott for fourth. Neither driver could find a way past Hughes, allowing the Brit his first podium since Silverstone at the start of the season. Daruvala took third, ahead of Mawson and Ilott.
It was a case of damage limitation for the two championship co-leaders. Lando Norris fared the better of the two. Starting the race seventh, he fell behind Guanyu Zhou, Harrison Newey, and Mick Schumacher at the start of the race. He was able to take back the position from Schumacher, albeit with slight contact as their wheels touched, but ran out of time before he could make a move on Zhou. He finished eighth.
Joel Eriksson faced an even tougher battle after starting the race from the back of the grid. All four Motopark drivers had struggled in qualifying, when the team got the tyre pressures wrong. He flew away from the line and was 11th by the end of lap one, but moving any further forward proved a challenge.
David Beckmann was running in the final points paying position after his own impressive drive from 15th on the grid. He has switched to Motopark after spending the first three rounds at Van Amersfoort, and was now proving a problem for his new team mate.
Eriksson eventually found a way past on lap 15 of 21, and quickly set about catching Schumacher for ninth. Schumacher defended well, meaning the championship contender could only take a single point from the race.