Dennis Hauger Wins Wet 2021 Hungarian Race Three to Extend F3 Championship Lead

Dennis Hauger extended his F3 championship lead to 63 points after taking victory in a wet Hungarian Race Three. 

Arthur Leclerc led from pole ahead of Hauger on a rolling start after the race began behind the Safety Car with the race distance reduced to 20 laps, although Hauger managed to keep pace and overtake his PREMA teammate on lap nine into Turn Three for victory.

Hauger though had to survive a Safety Car finish to secure the win after Laszlo Toth crashed into Ido Cohen on lap 18 to bring out the Safety Car for the final two laps.

Jack Doohan finished third ahead of David Schumacher, Clement Novalak, Aleksandr Smolyar and Frederik Vesti, as those sat third to seventh held order throughout the race, whilst Olli Caldwell, Enzo Fittipaldi and Logan Sargeant rounded out the top ten.

In the driver standings, Hauger now holds a 63 point lead over Doohan who moved up to second ahead of Caldwell with Vesti and Smolyar rounding out the top five heading into the summer break, ahead of the next round at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium, across weekend of 27-29 August.

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Showers throughout the morning resulted in stewards deciding to start the race behind the Safety Car for two laps, which led to a rolling start across a reduced 20 lap race distance with Arthur Leclerc leading the field racing.

The Safety Car was however swiftly back out on track after Victor Martins tried a switchback move on Oliver Rasmussen at Turn Nine, with both drivers going into the tyre barriers yet continuing in the race although Martins was able to continue after briefly stalling in reverse.

Once racing resumed on lap three, Hauger maintained constant pressure on Leclerc before eventually benefitting from an error by the Monegasque, as he swept round the outside of Turn Two to snatch the inside line of Turn Three to seize the lead.

Caldwell meanwhile suffered a lock-up at start of lap five and narrowly avoided wiping Vesti out in Turn One as the Dane retained seventh, whilst Caldwell lost one position to Ayumu Iwasa but was able to eventually recover eighth.

Enzo Fittipaldi meanwhile started 17th and delivered a strong charge to find himself 10th by the end of lap 13, before benefitting from poor tyre degradation on Iwasa’s car to ultimately finish ninth ahead of Charouz teammate – Sargeant who took the final point.

A crazy finish further down the field saw Amaury Cordeel and Roman Stanek both spin at Turn 13 on lap 17, just seconds before Rafael Villagomez clipped Ido Cohen’s front right tyre on lap 18 to send both drivers into spins.

Cohen however was struck by an unsighted Laszlo Toth who rode up the left side of Cohen’s Carlin to bring the Safety Car, which meant that Hauger won the race under a Safety Car finish ahead of Leclerc and Doohan.