Roundup of the tenth round of 2022 F2 season which delivered a huge twist in the title race.
Felipe Drugovich entered this round in cruise control of the championship ahead of Theo Pourchaire but both races threw up curveballs in terms of title deficits heading into the summer break.
Several other drivers meanwhile were looking to build some momentum heading into their holidays ready for the second half of the season, with various F1 seats still up for grabs ahead of next season.
Now here is a full roundup of all the F2 action around the Hungaroring.
Practice
Hitech GP’s Marcus Armstrong was first out on track as everyone ran medium tyres, but the yellow flags were soon out as a hare ran rampant on the start/finish straight at mightily fast speed evading capture.
Once the hare had been removed from the track, Van Amersfoort Racing’s (VAR) David Beckmann and Amaury Cordeel headed the order initially until flying laps began, with ART GP’s Theo Pourchaire posting 1m 30.870 to head Frederik Vesti once the first quick laps were completed.
Hauger then went fastest in the 13th minute with 1m 29.941 to go top from Jack Doohan, whilst Carlin’s Logan Sargeant ran wide at the final corner a minute later after losing control of his brakes on entry.
Doohan meanwhile set a session-topping lap time of 1m 29.562 in the 16th minute and ultimately finished 0.001 seconds quicker than Ayumu Iwasa.
Attention soon afterwards switched to race simulations but Beckmann unexpectedly rose to third at the checkered flag, whilst Hauger suffered a spin at Turn 11 which put him in the barriers to prevent other late improvements.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | 1m 29.562 |
| 2 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | + 0.001 |
| 3 | David Beckmann | VAR | + 0.079 |
| 4 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 0.201 |
| 5 | Marcus Armstrong | Hitech GP | + 0.321 |
| 6 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 0.3332 |
| 7 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | + 0.379 |
| 8 | Liam Lawson | Carlin | + 0.385 |
| 9 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 0.697 |
| 10 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | + 0.708 |
| 11 | Logan Sargeant | Carlin | + 0.719 |
| 12 | Jehan Daruvala | PREMA | + 0.744 |
| 13 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | + 0.786 |
| 14 | Olli Caldwell | Campos | + 0.853 |
| 15 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | + 1.021 |
| 16 | Clement Novalak | MP Motorsport | + 1.098 |
| 17 | Calan Williams | Trident | + 1.116 |
| 18 | Marino Sato | Virtuosi | + 1.137 |
| 19 | Amaury Cordeel | VAR | + 1.158 |
| 20 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | + 1.176 |
| 21 | Roberto Merhi | Campos | + 1.262 |
| 22 | Cem Bolukbasi | Charouz | + 1.509 |
Qualifying
Armstrong again led the field out onto the circuit and set the initial benchmark time of 1m 29.228 in the sixth minute ahead of Doohan and Liam Lawson, until Vesti went top one minute later with 1m 28.850 ahead of his ART GP teammate – Pourchaire by 0.033s.
Championship leader, Felipe Drugovich meanwhile found time on his second flier to go second but Campos’ Olli Caldwell opted to run in the gap mid-session, which sent the Brit unexpectedly top with 1m 28.803 just as everyone else headed out for their final runs.
Once the initial set of final fliers had been completed, Armstrong headed the field with 1m 28.311 ahead of Pourchaire, who got demoted a position by Drugovich following the Brazilian’s second flier.
Last weekend’s Feature Race winner, Ayumu Iwasa meanwhile endured a rough session but pulled it all together on his final lap to clinch his second Feature Race pole with three minutes left, as the DAMS driver posted an unbeatable 1m 27.930 to go top.
Armstrong, Drugovich, Pourchaire, Sargeant, Juri Vips, Vesti, and Hauger rounded out the top eight ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi and Jack Doohan who will start the Sprint Race from reverse-pole.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | 1m 27.930 |
| 2 | Marcus Armstrong | Hitech GP | + 0.381 |
| 3 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | + 0.410 |
| 4 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 0.429 |
| 5 | Logan Sargeant | Carlin | + 0.451 |
| 6 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | + 0.461 |
| 7 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 0.632 |
| 8 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | + 0.674 |
| 9 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 0.756 |
| 10 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | + 0.761 |
| 11 | Liam Lawson | Carlin | + 0.820 |
| 12 | Jehan Daruvala | PREMA | + 0.856 |
| 13 | Olli Caldwell | Campos | + 0.873 |
| 14 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | + 0.919 |
| 15 | Marino Sato | Virtuosi | + 1.088 |
| 16 | Cem Bolukbasi | Charouz | + 1.172 |
| 17 | David Beckmann | VAR | + 1.413 |
| 18 | Calan Williams | Trident | + 1.416 |
| 19 | Clement Novalak | MP Motorsport | + 1.551 |
| 20 | Roberto Merhi | Campos | + 1.617 |
| 21 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | + 1.676 |
| 22 | Amaury Cordeel | VAR | + 1.862 |
Sprint Race
At lights out, Doohan suffered a sluggish start as Fittipaldi blasted into the lead but the Brazilian locked up at Turn 2, which unleashed Doohan back into the lead ahead of Vips and Fittipaldi.
Just behind the front trio, Drugovich tried an inside move at the opening corner on his title rival, Logan Sargeant which sent the American clattering into Hauger who was spun around, with Pourchaire forced to go wide as a consequence and drop to 16th.
The Safety Car consequently was deployed and once the race resumed, Doohan led Vips, Fittipaldi, Drugovich and Vesti to the checkered flag with careful race pace and tyre management, as the gap largely sat at around 1.5s until the end when the lead gap grew to 5.2..s.
Daruvala in sixth meanwhile struggled with his medium tyres against relentless pressure of Armstrong as the pair eventually collided out of Turn 1 on Lap 19, which saw Armstrong try to sweep round the outside only to be shunned wide and lost the position to Lawson.
Both drivers however were able to pass the PREMA driver four laps later on Lap 23 at the same corner as Daruvala’s tyres gave up, which caused him to pit and serve his 10s time penalty for his collision with Armstrong prior to a swap to soft tyres.
Doohan in the end claimed his second Sprint victory in four rounds ahead of Vips, Fittipaldi, Drugovich, Vesti, Lawson, Armstrong and Iwasa who rounded out the top eight points-scoring finishers.
In the driver standings, Drugovich benefitted from Pourchaire’s failure to score points as he extended his title lead to 44 points, whilst Sargeant stayed third following his second consecutive retirement.
Post-race, Richard Verschoor was hit with a 30s time penalty after he failed to served a 10s time penalty properly within an overall 15s time penalty (amassed through separate 5s and 10s time penalties), due to the rear jack engaging with the car and team then failed to wait 15s to change tyres.
Stewards however adjudged that the 5s penalty had been observed successfully so they added the 10s time penalty to his race time, on top of a 20s time penalty in lieu of a drive-through penalty, which dropped the Dutchman from 16th to 18th in the classification.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | 28 | 45m 42.642 |
| 2 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | 28 | + 5.275 |
| 3 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | 28 | + 6.325 |
| 4 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | 28 | + 7.792 |
| 5 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | 28 | + 9.266 |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | Carlin | 28 | + 13.550 |
| 7 | Marcus Armstrong | Hitech GP | 28 | + 20.185 |
| 8 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | 28 | + 20.723 |
| 9 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 28 | + 21.715 |
| 10 | Olli Caldwell | Campos | 28 | + 29.794 |
| 11 | Calan Williams | Trident | 28 | + 31.056 |
| 12 | David Beckmann | VAR | 28 | + 31.839 |
| 13 | Amaury Cordeel | VAR | 28 | + 32.290 |
| 14 | Roberto Merhi | Campos | 28 | + 48.884 |
| 15 | Marino Sato | Virtuosi | 28 | + 51.818 |
| 16 | Cem Bolukbasi | Charouz | 28 | + 67.163 |
| 17 | Jehan Daruvala | PREMA | 28 | + 77.268 |
| 18 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | 28 | + 87.022 |
| 19 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | 27 | + 1 Lap |
| 20 | Clement Novalak | MP Motorsport | 27 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Logan Sargeant | Carlin | 1 | Collision |
| RET | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 0 | Collision |
Feature Race
At lights out, Armstrong got a fast start to take the lead as Pourchaire swept round the outside of Turn 1 to take second ahead of Iwasa and Drugovich in a clean start for everyone except Doohan, who eventually retired on Lap 4 with a mechanical issue.
Out of the soft-tyre frontrunners, Drugovich was the first to pit for medium tyres at the end of Lap 7 with the front trio pitting a lap later, which enabled Pourchaire to claim the net lead from Iwasa as Armstrong got held up as he exited his pit box to let Pourchaire and Iwasa through.
Fittipaldi meanwhile ran two laps longer which enabled him to jump up to net second place after he made his stop, having been passed by Pourchaire at Turn 1 as he exited the pits.
Up front on the alternate strategy, Vesti had received a 5s time penalty for forcing Vips wide in a first lap scrap but built a roughly 8s lead over the Estonian which he held until he pitted for softs at the end of Lap 27.
Pourchaire meanwhile had to wait until Lap 18 before he could begin to carve his way through those who started on the medium tyres, ultimately claiming the lead on Lap 29 when Lawson pitted with light rain beginning to sweep in two laps later.
In the end, Pourchaire clung on for his third Feature Race win of the season ahead of Fittipaldi and Iwasa as Vesti recovered to fourth ahead of Vips, Armstrong, Lawson and Verschoor.
Drugovich’s early pit stop gamble failed to pay off but he salvaged two points in ninth place after he fought off Sargeant across the final two laps.
In the driver standings, Drugovich’s title lead heading into the summer break was cut down to just 21 points, with Sargeant adrift in third as Fittipaldi leapfrogged Daruvala into fourth.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 37 | 58m 56.681 |
| 2 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | 37 | + 3.641 |
| 3 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | 37 | + 5.927 |
| 4 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | 37 | + 6.760 |
| 5 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | 37 | + 9.624 |
| 6 | Marcus Armstrong | Hitech GP | 37 | + 13.542 |
| 7 | Liam Lawson | Carlin | 37 | + 14.755 |
| 8 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | 37 | + 20.156 |
| 9 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | 37 | + 28.627 |
| 10 | Logan Sargeant | Carlin | 37 | + 29.230 |
| 11 | Jehan Daruvala | PREMA | 37 | + 42.499 |
| 12 | Clement Novalak | MP Motorsport | 37 | + 42.805 |
| 13 | Cem Bolukbasi | Charouz | 37 | + 45.736 |
| 14 | David Beckmann | VAR | 37 | + 47.459 |
| 15 | Marino Sato | Virtuosi | 37 | + 47.669 |
| 16 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | 37 | + 48.388 |
| 17 | Calan Williams | Trident | 37 | + 51.200 |
| 18 | Amaury Cordeel | VAR | 37 | + 56.084 |
| 19 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 37 | + 77.981 |
| 20 | Olli Caldwell | Campos | 36 | + 1 Lap |
| 21 | Roberto Merhi | Campos | 34 | Mechanical |
| RET | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | 3 | Mechanical |
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