F3 Hungary: Smolyar takes lights-to-flag win in feature race
Alexander Smolyar cruised to a lights-to-flag feature race victory at the Hungaroring ahead of Zane Maloney, as Zak O'Sullivan and Juan Manuel Correa produced late charges on slick tyres.
The MP Motorsport driver took the team’s second win of the weekend after Caio Collet secured sprint race victory on Saturday.
Starting on pole on a damp track, Smolyar was already four seconds clear by lap four and remained untroubled by Maloney (Trident) for the rest of the running.
Maloney and third-placed Ollie Bearman tussled throughout, but the Barbadian kept the Prema driver behind, with a photo finish as the two crossed the line almost at the same time.
A surprise fourth-place finish came for O’Sullivan, whose Carlin team made the risky move of pitting for slick tyres on lap 17, allowing the Briton to charge through the field having started 22nd.
Correa, who also gambled on slicks despite F3 not being set up to make pitstops, had a similarly successful charge, finishing sixth having come out the pits in 18th.
Jak Crawford got the best launch off the line, moving from sixth to fourth by Turn 1, with Kush Maini passing Gregoire Saucy for fourth.
Championship contender Isack Hadjar dropped back through the pack, with a poor start hampering his progress from 10th before having to take evasive action at Turn 2 after contact between Jonny Edgar and Oliver Goethe.
A brief yellow flag came on lap two as Goethe spun, with Correa managing to avoid his Campos car, but the Euroformula championship leader got going again to rejoin the pack.
Saucy took seventh from Collet at Turn 2 on lap six, with Arthur Leclerc and David Vidales tussling for 10th after the Prema driver received a five-place grid drop for making contact with Crawford in Saturday’s sprint race.
Oliver Bearman, Prema Racing
Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Correa and O’Sullivan both opted to pit to slicks at the end of lap 16, the Carlin driver following the next lap in a risky move while both ran outside the points.
Leclerc moved up the inside of Martins at Turn 12 to take sixth, with Crawford on the back of Bearman up ahead in the fight for third.
Once their slicks had warmed up, O’Sullivan and Correa began their progress through the pack, the former up to 14th by lap 22.
Martins, Saucy and Collet tussled over seventh the following lap, with Martins maintaining the front of the group while Saucy and Collet almost made contact at Turn 2.
But they were no match for the slick runners, with O’Sullivan and Correa clearing the pack in the final laps to finish fourth and sixth respectively.
Despite a last-ditch charge at Maloney, Bearman settled for third, his fourth podium of the season.
In between the slick tyre runners, Crawford took fifth, with Maini in seventh and Leclerc in eighth. Collet and Martins rounded off the top 10.
F3 Hungary - Feature Race Results
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