Hungaroring F3.5: Dillmann gets maiden win in heavy rain despite off

The deciding factor in his victory, however, was not pole but a correct call to come into the pits for the mandatory stop at the earliest possible opportunity.

With the track absolutely soaked before the race, it took four laps under safety car before race control decided to let the cars run at full speed.

But the field didn't even make it to the start-finish line before chaos unfolded, as Roy Nissany spun out his car on exit out of the final corner, just barely avoiding being collected by Matthieu Vaxiviere.

A number of other drivers then went off on the first green-flag lap and Dillmann was among them, just narrowly escaping an early end to his race and surrendering the lead to Vaxiviere.

However, Dillmann and four other drivers then opted to pit at the end of the lap, which proved the absolute correct call as the next lap saw the safety car come out for the stranded cars of Vitor Baptista and Alfonso Celis.

Vaxiviere did not take to the pits and, with the field bunching up behind him, his victory bid was over and done with.

At the restart, Vaxiviere held off Johnny Cecotto for what was then the lead, while Dillmann, having slipped behind Aurelien Panis during the pit stops, pulled off a crucial overtake on his compatriot.

And, as those ahead of him took their mandatory stops, Dillmann was leading again.

However, it was far from smooth sailing for the AVF driver as Nissany, having recovered from his early spin, quickly dispatched with Panis and set out after the race lead.

Nissany made up multiple seconds per lap in the closing minutes of the race, but just ran out of time, arriving at Dillmann's rear wing on the final lap and having to settle for a personal-best second.

Panis coasted home to third, ahead of another early-stopper Louis Deletraz and Vaxiviere.

Yu Kanamaru was running sixth on the final lap - with what appeared to be a seriously damaged car after early contact with the barriers - when he spun in the penultimate corner, having to settle for 10th.

Cecotto, as such, inherited sixth place, ahead of Rene Binder, Pietro Fittipaldi and Egor Orudzhev.

Joining Baptista and Celis among the retirements were Giuseppe Cipriani and Matevos Isaakyan, both going off in treacherous conditions, while Beitske Visser didn't even get to start the race, her car stalling off the line and failing to get going again.

Race 2 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Tom Dillmann	AVF	43:10.395
2	Roy Nissany	Lotus	0.898
3	Aurelien Panis	Arden Motorsport	11.854
4	Louis Deletraz	Fortec Motorsports	24.631
5	Matthieu Vaxiviere	SMP Racing	27.164
6	Johnny Cecotto	RP Motorsport	38.590
7	Rene Binder	Lotus	39.380
8	Pietro Fittipaldi	Fortec Motorsports	55.150
9	Egor Orudzhev	Arden Motorsport	1:13.425
10	Yu Kanamaru	Teo Martin Motorsport	1:39.983
Ret	Giuseppe Cipriani	Durango Racing Team
Ret	Matevos Isaakyan	SMP Racing
Ret	Vitor Baptista	RP Motorsport
Ret	Alfonso Celis	AVF
DNS	Beitske Visser	Teo Martin Motorsport