| It was very hot today at the Hungaroring for the 37-lap Feature Race of the seventh round of the 2017 FIA Formula Two Championship with air and track temperatures of 28° and 52° respectively. Following yesterday’s Qualifying Racing Engineering’s two drivers, Louis Delétraz and Gustav Malja, had qualified 17th and 18th but post-qualifying penalties to Sette Camara and Leclerc promoted them to 15th and 16th. The two Racing Engineering cars were using a split tyre strategy with Gustav starting on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft compound tyres and Louis on the P Zero White medium tyres and each would swop to the other compound at their mandatory pitstops.
Nato was forced to start from the pitlane following problems on the grid which gave Louis and Gustav a further gain in their grid positions but, as the cars returned to the grid following their formation lap, an out-of-position Jeffri caused the start to be aborted reducing the race to 36 laps.
Neither Louis or Gustav gained any positions at the start and Gustav finished the opening lap in 15th with Louis in 18th, but on the second lap Gustav passed Visoiu and Ferrucci to move up to 13th. On lap four the young Swede was 0.4 behind Boschung and a similar gap ahead of Visoiu but on lap six he pitted to change to the medium compound tyres and he resumed the track in 20th position. By lap ten, as other cars pitted, Gustav was up to 16th and he was setting a string of personal fastest laps and on lap twelve he was in 13th. Further pitstops saw the Racing Engineering car up to 10th but he was five seconds behind Matsushita in 9th but he was gradually pulling away from King.
The pitstops by the cars that had started on the medium compound tyres began on lap twenty-two and two laps later Gustav was in an excellent sixth place and in the points but an accident to Canamasas and Visoiu on lap twenty-five saw the Safety Car out on the track and racing resumed two laps later. As the cars raced down the pit straight the Racing Engineering car was fighting hard with King and in the confusion both men were passed by Leclerc and Ghiotto and on the following lap he lost another position to Nato to fall to 9th. On lap thirty Gustav ran off the track at the tight Turn 1 corner and he lost three positions and then he began to fall away and by lap thirty-two he was 17th. An accident to Markelov in the closing laps saw the race finish under the Safety Car with Gustav taking 15th.
Louis soon found himself in a tight battle with F2 newcomer Ferrucci, who was about half a second ahead, and Nato who was a second behind and he began to move up the field as other cars pitted and on lap twelve he was lying 7th. By the following lap he was 4th as all the cars that had started on the soft tyres had made their pitstops and he was setting fastest personal laps as he tried to gain an advantage on the early pit-stoppers. On lap eighteen Louis lost a position to Rowland who was on new tyres and on the following two laps he lost two further positions to Markelov and Latifi as his tyres were now badly worn. The young Swiss driver pitted on lap twenty-three resuming in 19th which became 17th after the accident to Canamasas and Visoiu. Louis now began to set some quick laps which allowed him to get ahead of Boschung, Sette Camara and Jeffri and on lap thirty-two he passed his teammate to lie 13th. A late retirement to Markelov and a time penalty to King promoted Louis to 11th, just outside the points, which was where he finished. A very disappointing finish to the race after it looked as if Gustav would have finished in the top five but Louis finishing 11th means that he has a good opportunity to score points in tomorrow’s Sprint Race and the results for Leclerc and Nato today, who both started at the back of the grid, shows that it is possible for Gustav to also score points. |
