FORMULA 2
 New championship leader Isack Hadjar racing in Hungary in the 2023 Formula 2 round. Credit: Joe Portlock via Getty Images Formula 2 returns to action, after a week break, as the championship heads to the Hungaroring in Budapest for round nine of the championship. The round in Hungary will be the first of two rounds in two weeks before the August summer break with the round in Hungary being one week before round 10 in Spa. Therefore this will be the ninth round of 14 in the 2024 champiosnhip. Most recently in Formula 2 was a round at Silverstone just two weeks where a weekend with no points for Hitech rookie Paul Aron saw him fail to score in both the sprint and feature races that weekend. Although a mistake saw Isack Hadjar retire in the wet conditions, the French, Red Bull junior driver would capitalise on the pole position he took on Friday to win the feature race and take the championship lead for the first time in his Formula 2 career. A look at the track: Hungaroring - Budapest, Hungary (Round 9) Formula 2 raced in Hungary last year around the well known Hungaroring. Credit: Rudy Carezzvoli via Getty Images The Hungaroring is a common circuit across many feeder series in Europe, so it will be a circuit many of the field will know fairly well, as the championship heads to Budapest for round nine of the championship. Hungaroring has produced many great moments throughout the Formula 2 years, since the series first came to the Hungarian circuit in 2017 - the first year of the Formula 2 championship since the series was evolved from the previous GP2 series. Formula 2 has visited the Hungaroring every year since 2017 except the 2021 season, being a popular destination for the Formula 2 championship. Many different winners have triumphed around the circuit in the Formula 2 championship. Wins for drivers such as Oliver Rowland, Alex Albon, Nyck De Vries,Nicolas Latifi have all came at the Hungaroring. Also, 2020 Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher took his first Formula 2 victory in 2019, in the sprint race. The Hungaroring circuit is made up of 14 turns with a lap distance of 4.381km. Overtaking opportunities at this circuit are more likely to be at the start of the lap as the longest starights come there, as well as the two DRS zones of the Hungaroring. DRS Zones run down the start/finish straight into turn 1 and down the following straight into turn 2. Formula 2's lap record at the Hungaroring was set in the first Formula 2 event at the cricuit. British driver and current Formula E talent Oliver Rowland holds the lap record. Rowland, driving for DAMS, set a lap of 1:26.268. A lap still trying to beat and will be an aim for the drivers on the 2024 grid. This weekend the drivers will participate in two races which will be the sprint and feature races, as is normal with the Formula 2 championship. 28 laps will take place in Saturday's sprint race, while on Sunday, in the feature race, 37 laps will be the race distance. The feature race, as usual, will require all drivers to make a mandatory pit stop. The previous year in Hungary, in the 2023 season, there would be a lot of great action taking place across the three-day weekend of action. A close fight in qualifying would see Jack Doohan to put in an extraordinary lap to go fastest by just half a tenth of a second (0.052s). Doohan, of Invicta Racing, took pole ahead of his fellow Alpine Academy driver Victor Martins of ART. Frederik Vesti was less than a tenth of a second off pole in third for Prema. When attention turned to the racing action, it would be the MP Motorsport of Dennis Hauger to take victory in what was a very entertaining race. Ayumu Iwasa finished second for DAMS, over four seconds back from Hauger with British rookie Oliver Bearman taking third for Prema. However in the feature race, like 2022, Jack Doohan showed his quality at the Hungaroring to go from pole to victory to take his and his team's first victory of the season. After a bit of a difficult season up to the point, he would dominate finishing over nine seconds clear of Frederik Vesti who would take second place. Vesti would be fighting closely to keep second with a battle taking place between himself and third place Victor Martins. The previous round: Round 8 - Silverstone Formula 2 raced at Silverstone in Great Britain, in the previous round. Credit: Joe Portlock via Getty Images Last time out in FIA Formula 2, the championship took to the Silverstone circuit for round eight of the championship. Silverstone having appeared every year of the Formula 2 championship since the championship was revamped from GP2 in 2017. The British crowd at Silverstone are passionate about their motorsport and there would be excitement for the faithful as on the Thursday prior to the track action, it would be news for the 2025 Formula 1 season. Oliver Bearman of Prema would be announced that he would be driving for Haas and would graduate to Formula 1, at the end of the 2024 campaign. However, when Friday came around, it was time for Formula 2 action at Silverstone with the practice and qualifying sessions. On Friday morning it was Josh Durksen of AIX Racing who would set the fastest time, therefore ending the session top of the time sheets. When attention turned to the qualifying session, a dominant lap from Campos Racing's Frenchman Isack Hadjar who would take pole position for the feature race, with a lap that was a quarter of a second faster than ART's Alpine Academy star Victor Martins, who was second. Dennis Hauger was third in qualifying for MP Motorsport. Saturday signalled the sprint race, in the afternoon which produced a lot of rain to a point where the race would be red flagged with the torrential downpour making the circuit too dangerous to drive. After a short wait it would safe again to go racing. The race would produce great drama with Andrea Kimi Antonelli being the driver who had started on reverse grid pole. There would be a lot of drama in the sprint race with many incidents, including a big incident between Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti and, at the time championship leader Paul Aron had a crash on the exit of Aintree bringing out a safety car.. At the same time Isack Hadjar would go wide at Copse in the slippery conditions and spin in the gravel unassisted. Therefore, he would be out of the race with Aron and Marti. Many incidents would occur throughout the remainder of the race with one driver dominating out front and showing stunning pace. Antonelli, who was yet to take a podium in his rookie year after making the step up from the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine and skipping Formula 3. The highly rated Mercedes junior took his maiden win at Silverstone and showed his talent and kept his cool to deliver when it mattered. He finished comfortably ahead of Zane Maloney, who was back on the podium for Rodin Motorsport in second place. In third, Gabriel Bortoleto would initially look to have it after passing his Invicta teammate Kush Maini in the final few corners. However, Bortoleto would be penalised as he was deemed to have gained it unfairly and would therefore lose third to Maini and drop to fourth. In the feature race, it would be a well measured performance for Hadjar, and after Jak Crawford's penalty was applied, for an unsafe release, Hadjar would inherit the victory for his third win of the season. Maloney would take his second podium of the weekend in second as Crawford dropped to third with the penalty. Crawford would have taken his second feature race win in three without the penalty. A great race and a great weekend of action rounded up at Silverstone. Lots to look forward to in BudapestFor the first time in his Formula 2 career, Isack Hadjar comes into a round as the championship leader after the victory at Silverstone and zero points for Paul Aron has made the gap 16 points in the championship between the pair. Heading into Budapest, a lot of challenge are often presented for the drivers with a lot of overtaking into turn 1 and 2 potentially on the horizon and with five rounds remaining after this coming weekend, every point matters in the quest for the Formula 2 championship. Free practice will commence the weekend on Friday morning, with the session commencing at 11:05 track time and 10:05 for UK viewers. 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 9 - Hungary session timesTrack Times
UK Times
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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