Jack Doohan has romped to his first Formula 2 victory in a year as he dominated the Formula 2 Feature race in Hungary.
The Australian led every one of the 37 laps to head Frederik Vesti and Victor Martins to the flag.
It was a dominant performance as he converted his first pole of 2023 into his first race win in a year in an incredible performance that saw him claim a rare grand chelem; pole position, fastest lap, and the race win having led every lap.
A good launch from pole left Doohan in a clear lead as the field entered the opening turn while vest attempted to go around the outside of Martins.
The pair made contact, the championship leading holding on to move in to second spot by the time they reached Turn 2.
Behind the leading trio ran Theo Pourchaire from Isack Hadjar, Ayumu Iwasa, and Sprint race winner Dennis Hauger.
Secure your spot today.
Importantly, Doohan was able to sprint clear of DRS range in the early laps, giving him a little breathing space over Vesti behind.
The gaps between the front four were opening up slowly through the early stages, with Hadjar chasing Pourchaire the closest meaningful battle on track.
Running fourth and fifth respectively, they were less than a second apart, though had dropped more than a second a lap to Doohan in the opening four tours.
In the pack, Zane Maloney was the first to pit when he took to the lane at the end of Lap 7.
He’d started on the soft tyres, swapping to the hards for the 30-lap run to the flag.
It dropped him to 21st, last on track after Clement Novalak pulled off the circuit on Lap 2.
Others soon followed though none from the pointy end of the motor race.
The front of the race remained stable; Doohan sat around a second clear of Vesti who was a similar distance from Martin.
Pourchaire had slipped away slightly, while Hadjar became the first of the leaders to pit when he boxed on Lap 13.
ART reacted by calling Pourchaire in next time by as they looked to cover the risk of an undercut.
That mission was accomplished, however, Amaury Cordeel, who had been among those to stop early, was able to sneak by the Frenchman.
Hauger stopped on Lap 16 to feed out behind Hadjar and Pourchaire to run 14th on the road, though with most of those ahead still to stop.
Once his tyres were up to temperature, Pourchaire was able to move forward.
He chased back down Cordeel, taking the outside line through Turn 2 to reclaim the spot.
It was then Hadjar’s turn to attack the Virtuosi driver, making the move stick into Turn 1 as they began Lap 18.
The delay had been costly, Hadjar falling off the back of Pourchaire by more than two seconds.
After starting on the medium tyres, Iwasa pitted from fourth on Lap 20 to have the soft compound rubber fitted.
The Japanese driver soon lowered the fastest lap of the race.
After 22 laps, Prema called Vesti in.
The Dane has slipped almost five seconds back from Doohan through the opening stint, swapping on to the medium tyres for the 15-lap run to the flag.
Doohan didn’t react, remaining on track while Martins did pull the trigger and head in for fresh rubber at the end of the next lap.
He emerged ahead of Vesti, but on cold tyres was powerless to defend from him as they exited the opening corner.
Pourchaire also attacked, though was robustly rebuked at Turn 4, the Alfa Romeo Sauber driver bouncing over the concrete run-off as they narrowly avoided contact.
Doohan was forced to respond at that point, pitting from the lead at the end of Lap 24, rejoining with a comfortable advantage.
Following the pit stop cycle, Doohan held a 5.9s advantage over Vesti, with Martins third a further 3.5s back.
Hadjar had cleared Pourchaire, who was fighting a rearguard action against Iwasa for fifth.
Doohan was peerless, extending his advantage to over nine seconds by the flag over Vesti, with Martins remaining third.
A late move from Iwasa saw him steal fourth from Hadjar with three laps remaining, with Pourchaire dropping points in the championship battle in sixth.
In that competition, Doohan has climbed to fifth with four rounds remaining, the next in Belgium in a week’s time.
Discussion about this post