Richard Verschoor became the 14th different race winner in Formula 2 in 2024 by winning a strategic Hungaroring sprint race.
The Trident driver triumphed in the 17th race of the season so far after losing the lead to Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli early on. The Mercedes lead much of the first half of the race until his soft tyres began to fade, allowing Verschoor to attack on his hard rubber.Despite losing the lead to Antonelli soon after DRS was activated, Verschoor bided his time and eventually caught the Prema driver with around 10 laps remaining, putting him under pressure until Antonelli locked up and ran off at turn one.
Verschoor held onto the lead over the remaining laps to win by one-and-a-half seconds from Alpine juniors Kush Maini and Victor Martins. The latter was the first driver home on softs.
Championship leader Isack Hadjar passed several soft-shod rival to claim fourth and strengthen his advantage in the standings with fourth place. Dennis Hauger came fifth, like Martins on a set of softs.
Williams junior driver Franco Colapinto took sixth ahead of title contender Paul Aron who rose from tenth on the grid to finish seventh despite losing several places in the early laps. Taylor Barnard claimed the final point in eighth ahead of Juan Manuel Correa and Jak Crawford.
Oliver Bearman finished in 11th on his soft tyres, while team mate Antonelli was forced to pit for new tyres after losing the lead, coming home in 15th. Zane Maloney had been due to start third on the grid, but dropped to the rear after stalling on the formation lap, eventually finishing 14th. Every driver finished the race, though Enzo Fittipaldi suffering a front-left tyre delamination late on and finished last, a lap down.
Update: Verschoor loses another win after disqualification for technical infringement
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Formula 2 Hungary race one results
| Position | Car | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Richard Verschoor | Trident |
| 2 | 9 | Kush Maini | Invicta |
| 3 | 1 | Victor Martins | ART |
| 4 | 20 | Isack Hadjar | Campos |
| 5 | 11 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport |
| 6 | 12 | Franco Colapinto | MP Motorsport |
| 7 | 17 | Paul Aron | Hitech |
| 8 | 25 | Taylor Barnard | AIX |
| 9 | 8 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS |
| 10 | 7 | Jak Crawford | DAMS |
| 11 | 3 | Ollie Bearman | Prema |
| 12 | 15 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort |
| 13 | 6 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin |
| 14 | 5 | Zane Maloney | Rodin |
| 15 | 4 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema |
| 16 | 23 | Roman Stanek | Trident |
| 17 | 10 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta |
| 18 | 21 | Josep Maria Marti | Campos |
| 19 | 24 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX |
| 20 | 2 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART |
| 21 | 16 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech |
| 22 | 14 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort |
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Formula 2
- Six Formula 2 drivers handed double 10-place penalties for teams’ testing violations
- Formula 2 driver announces shock exit 10 days before new season starts
- “Formula 2 The Glory Years, 1967-84” reviewed
- Bortoleto clinches F2 title as Hadjar stalls and Duerksen wins finale
- Aron hit with double penalty for team’s illegal DRS modification, Hadjar gains a point
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
20th July 2024, 17:46
Though statistically F2 can seem a lot more ‘random’ than F1, this year is a real spaghetti of results. That Bearman and Antonelli are the two earmarked for F1 seats nobody could guess if they looked at the 2024 F2 results and nothing else.
It’s great entertainment for us, but I wouldn’t like to be the one paying the ($3m?) a season bill to run a driver, knowing that whatever talent they have might manifest as an 18th, 3rd, last, or ‘it doesn’t matter anyway they’ve gone with this other guy’.
I love it, it’s entertaining, but I wouldn’t (can’t) bankroll it. Which in itself is a problem. Plenty of F1 drivers are investments that somebody covered the cost of early on the promise of a return once their talent was recognised and paid. It’s very hard to recognise talent in F2 at the moment. Unless they’re all very equal in talent.
And with so many F2 champions not securing an F1 seat, it’s all a bit of a lottery.