Round 8 of the SLR Formula 2 season welcomed us to the Hungaroring which marked entering the second half of our favourite championship. Before Round 8 only once did we encounter rain this season. This was in one shot qualifying all the way back in Round 2 Netherlands. However for Hungary our F2 competitors would have to race BOTH the feature and the sprint in full wet conditions.
One shot qualifying was the only lap these drivers would do in Hungary in the dry so all these laps you would like to think were done with wet set ups. In pole position it was reigning champion ZyDRAD. His first pole which feels like a very long time. SLR Darnell would qualify second from Championship leader JamHam who starts in third. Starting fourth would be ABR Freeman in only his third race of the season and behind on row three was Raceroller and HamJam.
The feature! Revs were up and away we went....slowly. Right from the off ZyDRAD showed wet weather pace a level beyond everyone else to pull away. Jam managed to jump Darnell who was in a Jam and Ham sandwich. Darnell struggling to find the pace the top two were showing resulting in the F2 champions pulling away. Come the halfway stage a few laps earlier saw Darnell made a mistake allowing Ham and Raceroller past. Even still there was a comfortable gap to the drivers behind in the Charouz pairing of SLR Mckeon and UKBeastAssassin. Lap 9 saw SLR Darnell become the second retirement of the race after losing traction on the exit of turn three which brought out the safety car! This meant grouping the whole pack together, a pit for fresh wets or getting an unfortunate drive through penalty if your name is JamHam. Come the restart it was ZyDRAD leading from HamJam, Raceroller, SLR Mckeon and SLR Southerner. For the remaining 6 laps the order remained unchanged and as we crossed the line we saw ZyDRAD back to his best with an absolute dominant performance to take his first F2 victory since the feature race all the way back in Zandvoort. Second place was HamJam and in third was another impressive drive from Raceroller to claim another feature podium for the Scot. To complete the top five was SLR Mckeon in fourth just pipping SLR Southerner who had to settle for fifth despite qualifying back in 16th.
The Sprint! Lil Wiggy started in reverse grid pole from UKBeastAssassin and Bennett628 who completed the top 3. The lights went out and away we went....again slowly. Apart from if you are the reigning F2 champion ZyDRAD who took off like a rocket and found himself in fourth come turn two. The script looked written for a battle between six for the win in the sprint. This was reduced to five following another drive through penalty for the Championship leader JamHam for a virtual safety car infringement in the process of hunting down the top five. Come the halfway stage there was nothing between the top five. Wiggy was leading a UNI one-two following a mistake at the chicane from UKBeastAssassin who also lost a place to HamJam. There was no team orders at UNI however as Wiggy defended for his life to fend of his teammate in ZyDRAD. He could only do this for a few laps as whilst the two were fighting for the lead HamJam took full advantage to slip and slide his way through into the lead. Few corners later ZyDRAD managed to also pass Wiggy as his tyres started to die but the damage was already done! HamJam crossed the line to only just win the sprint race despite a late charge to the end from ZyDrad. It was a beauty from the beast in third from UKBeastAssassin to claim his second podium of the season. SLR Southerner would come home fourth despite a late puncture with a sector to remain and to complete the top 5 was another impressive race from SLR Mckeon to round off a successful round for everyones favourite quiche. Lil wiggy would end up finishing sixth after suffering major tyres issues in the last few laps and a three second time penalty. JamHam would finish in ninth walking away from Hungary with no points. Bad for the season one champion but great for the championship as the gap between the top three is significantly reduced!
Up next is Spa. Personal favourite of mine. Will we see more drama or will we see more rain? The saga continues next week.
Qualifying
1 ZYDRAD 1:25.896
2 SLR DARNELL
3 XX JAMHAM XX
4 ABR FREEMAN
5 RACEROLLER22
6 HAMJAM2002
7 SLR MCKEON
8 SLR NIKI
9 UKBEASTASSASSIN
10 BENNETT628
11 J LEE MENZ
12 SLR SCOPEZZ
13 BAGGIEFAN 1995
14 N1GHT RANG3R 95
15 LIL WIGGYY
16 SLR SOUTHERNER
17 SLR RUSSELL
18 SLR TEDDY
19 SLR SEMM
20 SLR BARLOW
Feature
1 ZYDRAD 1:39.305
2 HAMJAM2002
3 RACEROLLER22
4 SLR MCKEON
5 SLR SOUTHERNER
6 BENNETT628
7 UKBEASTASSASSIN
8 LIL WIGGYY
9 SLR SEMM
10 SLR BARLOW
11 SLR TEDDY
12 XX JAMHAM XX
13 SLR SCOPEZZ
14 BAGGIEFAN 1995
15 SLR RUSSELL
16 N1GHT RANG3R 95
17 J LEE MENZ
18 ABR FREEMAN DNF
19 SLR DARNELL DNF
20 SLR NIKI DNF
Sprint
1 Hamjam2002
2 ZYDRAD 1:39.473
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 SLR SOUTHERNER
5 SLR MCKEON
6 LIL WIGGYY
7 SLR DARNELL
8 ABR FREEMAN
9 SLR NIKI
10 XX JAMHAM XX
11 SLR SEMM
12 J LEE MENZ
13 SLR BARLOW
14 BAGGIEFAN 1995
15 N1GHT RANG3R 95
16 SLR SCOPEZZ
17 SLR TEDDY DNF
18 BENNETT628 DNF
19 RACEROLLER22 DNF
20 SLR RUSSELL DNF
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