Theo Pourchaire dominated the Feature race at the Hungaroring in a peerless drive from the Frenchman capitalising on his title rival Felipe Drugovich’s tardy day at the office.
Enzo Fittiapldi claimed a great second for Charouz ahead of Ayumu Iwasa rounding off a superb weekend for the Brazilian.
At the start, Marcus Armstrong got a great initial launch from P2 on the grid and led into Turn 1 getting ahead of pole sitter Iwasa at a cool Hungaroring.
The Japanese driver dropped back to third as Pourchaire overtook the DAMS driver on the exit of the first turn. The championship leader Drugovich followed in fourth place for MP Motorsport.
Sprint Race winner Jack Doohan suffered mechanical issues on the opening lap and slumped to the back of the field in an agonising scenario for the Australian, he later retired.
Pourchaire continued to come under increasing pressure from Iwasa in the early stages which allowed Armstrong to streak away and critically break the one second DRS window.
On Lap 8 Drugovich pitted bolting on the harder compound medium tyres in an attempt to gain track position and undercut Iwasa and Pourchaire as the battle for the podium raged on.
Armstrong, Pourchaire and Iwasa responded on the next lap. The Kiwi got passed by both his rivals in the pits relinquishing the net lead of the race to ART’s Pourchaire.
Drugovich enjoyed his extra tyre temperature and swept past the Hitech driver heaping more misery on the 22-year-old as Enzo Fittipaldi led the race.
As half distance approached on Lap 15 Danish driver Fredrik Vesti led the field on the medium tyre attempting to make the alternate strategy work ahead of Juri Vips and Richard Verschoor.
18-year-old Pourchaire continued to cut through the field and found himself in sixth place on Lap 24 after getting past Clement Novalak with a textbook move keeping his composure under pressure.
Vesti and Vips pitted with the duo looking to reap the rewards of the gripper soft tyres with 10 laps remaining. The Dane served his five second penalty of forcing another driver off the track costing him valuable time.
Pourchaire continued to lead up front after a superb drive, Fittipaldi desperately tried to close the game in the last few laps but couldn’t get close enough. The Brazilian dramatically slowed down on the final lap but hung onto second place in a superb weekend for the Charouz driver.
