GP2 2013 Hungary

The GP2 drivers managed to make the races interesting for viewers with various battles in both races. Good strategies made big differences this weekend, and the drivers didn't face the anticipated problems with the very hot Hungarian summer weather.

There were many driver changes for the Hungarian race weekend as Robin Frijns wasn't able to continue with Hilmer Motorsport due to financial issues. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs took Frijns' seat while Dani Clos took Quaife-Hobbs' seat in MP Motorsport. These weren't the only changes as Ricardo Teixeira replaced Kevin Ceccon in the Trident Team and Vittorio Ghirelli replaced Fabio Crestani in Venezuela GP Lazarus.

Qualifying:

Tom Dillmann scored his first pole position of the season as he managed the fastest time in the session. He had started from reverse grid pole earlier in Bahrain, but this was the first time he had managed to get pole position in qualifying 0,3 seconds faster than Fabio Leimer who managed to get 2nd place on the grid. Felipe Nasr was 3rd, Marcus Ericsson 4th and Dillmann's team mate Sam Bird was 5th. It was a difficult session for the championship leader Stefano Coletti as his time was only good enough for 18th place on the grid. This meant the feature race was going to be a challenging one for Coletti while his rivals Nasr and Leimer were in the top 3.

Feature Race:

It didn't go as planned for everyone on the formation lap as Teixeira stalled his car on the last corner. This caused another formation lap for the drivers and Teixeira was pushed to the pitlane. Both MP Motorsport cars stalled on the grid when the second formation lap started and they found themselves in the pitlane with Teixeira.

The race finally started and Dillmann got a bad start from pole position. Nasr got a great start from third and took the lead and Leimer went 2nd. It was also a great start of the race for both Carlin drivers as Jolyon Palmer started from 7th and got 3rd position after the first corner, followed by DAMS drivers Marcus Ericsson and Stéphane Richelm in 4th and 5th places. Pole setter Dillmann found himself in 6th place, just ahead of his team mate Sam Bird. Ericsson had a good fight with Palmer and managed to get past him on the second lap and Ericsson's team mate Richelmi was very close to pulling off the same move, but Palmer managed to keep 4th.

Dillmann was the first man to come into the pits when 6 laps were done and he changed to the medium tyre as he was going for a long stint of 30 laps. Ericsson had a similar strategy and the Swede came in one lap later. Race leaders Nasr and Leimer came into the pits on lap 9 and when the duo came back onto the track, Ericsson was able to get in front of Leimer. It was going as planned for Ericsson as Leimer and Nasr were out on cold tyres and Ericsson managed to overtake Nasr as well when coming down to the combination of second and third corners. Palmer was leading the race as he started with medium tyres, which meant he was going to run long before coming into the pits. The question was how well was that strategy going to work.

On lap 16, there was an accident between John Lancaster and Sergio Canamasas as Lancaster pushed into Canamasas' side pod and both lost their front wings. Canamasas continued on his way without his front wing and Lancastar came into the pits. The race leader Palmer pitted on the same lap and took a new set of medium tyres. He came back onto the track between Ericsson and Nasr and stayed very close to Ericsson. This was going to be a fight for victory between Ericsson, Palmer and Nasr.

Three laps later Palmer was trying to make a pass on Ericsson but came into the corner too quickly, went over the kerb and went wide which meant Ericsson was able to pull back in front. For the next couple of laps Palmer gave the Swede a lot of pressure. Ericsson also had a radio message telling he has a gearbox issue, which affected his pace, but it was very challenging for Palmer as the track is quite difficult for overtaking. A couple of laps later Palmer tried to make a move once again, this time coming into the first corner: it didn't work out as Palmer had a lock up and went a bit wide which meant Ericsson was still in front of him. Finally, with 9 laps left, Palmer tried to make a similar move in first corner but it was very close as both had problems coming out of the corner and the fight continued for the next couple of corners, when Palmer finally fought a way past and took the race lead. It was now Palmer, Ericsson, Nasr and Leimer as the top 4 as the drivers who left their stops late went to the pits.

Meanwhile Johnny Cecotto was running on track with a damaged front wing as he had crashed into the rear of Tom Dillmann's car. Cecotto got a black and orange flag which meant he had to go into the pits to change the wing. The Team told him on the radio that they would change to the option tyre even though Cecotto had already made his change earlier. That meant Cecotto was going to be very competitive with fresh rubber in the last few laps. After coming into the pits for the wing and tyre change, Cecotto also received a drive through penalty for causing the collision with Dillmann which meant the Arden driver dropped one lap down on the race leaders.

In the last 6 laps Nasr tried to chase Ericsson's second place and a close battle continued. With 5 laps left Nasr made a move on the Swede but went off track to avoid contact and lost a little bit of time. Palmer already had a big lead on Ericsson and Nasr of over 8 seconds.

Cecotto a lap down compared to others but he started to unlap himself, first passing Fabio Leimer and then catching up with Nasr and Ericsson. Even though Cecotto tried to unlap himself, there was no way he could have managed points from the race. He tried to pass Nasr and Nasr gave him space and let him go. Ericsson did the same, which upset the fight for 2nd place and it stayed the same order until the finish.

Jolyon Palmer won the race and it was the season's first victory for him and the Carlin team. Marcus Ericsson was 2nd, Felipe Nasr 3rd, Fabio Leimer 4th and Stéphane Richelmi 5th. Stefano Coletti had a very difficult day and finished in 16th place, which meant Nasr took a step closer to Coletti in the championship standings. Coletti was going to have another difficult day on Sunday as he needed to start from the 16th place.

Sprint Race:

Nathanael Berthon started from pole for the sprint race as he finished 8th in the feature race. Mitch Evans was 2nd, Simon Trummer 3rd, Richelmi 4th, Leimer 5th, Nasr 6th, Ericsson 7th and Palmer 8th.

Berthon kept his lead after the start followed by Evans, Leimer and Ericsson.The Safety Car was called out right after the start as there was a strange crash between Quaife-Hobbs, De Jong and Canamasas which left Quaife-Hobbs' and De Jong's cars leaving loads of debris on the track. Canamasas tried to continue without his rear wing, but had to come into the pits and retire the car.

Two laps later when the track was cleaned the race continued. The top 4 staying the same but Nasr was able to pass Trummer for 5th place. Richelmi was going to make the same move on Trummer but there was a slight touch between them and Richelmi stayed behind.

James Calado was doing a good job on track as he managed to put himself up the field and he had already passed Richelmi for 6th place and was right behind Nasr's Carlin. It didn't last for long though as Richelmi lost positions to Trummer and Bird and Calado started to get some pressure from these two drivers.

There was a contact between Julian Leal and Alexander Rossi coming into the first corner: Rossi's rear wing touched Leal's rear right tyre and that caused a puncture. Leal locked his tyres coming to the second corner and almost caused contact between him and Rossi, but Rossi was able to avoid the collision. The stewards gave Rossi a drive through penalty for causing Leal's puncture.

With 5 laps to go, Mitch Evans tried to catch Berthon's lead, but wasn't able to catch him which meant Berthon scored his first ever victory in the GP2 series. Evans was 2nd and Leimer 3rd. Ericsson was 4th, Nasr 5th, Calado 6th, Trummer 7th and Bird 8th. The championship leader Coletti was once again left without points as he retired from the race.

It was a very important weekend for the championship as the championship leader finished without points in both races. Nasr managed to get good points from both races with means the difference between Coletti and Nasr in the championship table is now only 6 points going onto Belgium. Leimer also took a step forward on points with good results and his gap to Coletti is 25 points, and 19 points to Nasr.

There will be a long break as the GP2 series enters to the summer holidays, but the championship will be interesting in Belgium as the gap between the leaders is getting smaller. Coletti needs to collect some good points from the next races and finish high if he wants to keep Nasr behind. Nasr has finished without points only once and is surely looking strong for Belgium. The race win is still missing for Nasr, and there is a possibility for his first victory at Spa. The track is loved by all the drivers and the weekend will surely make for exciting racing.