» GP2: Vandoorne storms to victory at the Hungaroring

McLaren development driver Stoffel Vandoorne has won a dominant GP2 sprint race, leading from the first corner to the finish line in Budapest.

Vandoorne quickly discharged pole-sitter Nathaniel Berthon at the start of the race, as Berthon failed to make an impressive getaway.

Felipe Nasr had a good start and relegated Berthon to third, then applied pressure onto Vandoorne for the lead of the race. However, Vandoorne proved to be too quick for the Brazilian and pulled away to a three second lead.

Championship leader Jolyon Palmer began the race in fifth position, and after an average start he found enough grip to pass Daniel Abt in fourth on the second lap, then a struggling Berthon two laps later.

Once again the two championship contenders found themselves racing each other, as Palmer was right on the tail of Nasr.

Heading down the main straight Palmer made a giant lunge into Turn One, taking Nasr by surprise and squeezed through for second position.

Nasr complained that Palmer had unfairly forced him off the track, so the Stewards took a closer look into the incident, although concluded that the move was fair.

As Palmer and Nasr were putting on a great display of how to race, the same couldn’t be said down the field when Stefano Coletti and Johnny Cecotto Jr. made contact heading into the chicane.

Coletti had started in 18^th after he was handed a 20 second time penalty after the feature race, as he was found guilty of causing a collision with Julian Leal.

The contact between Cecotto and Coletti was enough to force Cecotto out of the race, retiring for a second time in as many races.

Coletti continued on with his charge through the field until he came across Andre Negrao. Attempting a pass on the inside of Turn One, Coletti braked too late and made slight contact with the Arden driver, earning himself a drive through penalty.

His team-mate Raffaele Marciello was another driver to receive a post-race penalty, after he passed Vandoorne under safety car conditions, he was also handed a 20 second time penalty which saw him start the sprint race in 19^th.

Marciello persisted with his usual aggressive driving, which saw him go from 19^th to ninth by the end of the race, including a fantastic move on Mitch Evans.

In the end Vandoorne proved just how much he’s learned of his car, posting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap, while Palmer struggled behind on worn-out tyres.

Vandoorne now moves up to third in the overall standings, 83 points behind Palmer on a massive 192 points.

2014 GP2 Series Race of Hungary – Sprint Race Result (28 laps)

	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Result
1.	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	28	43:54.536
2.	Jolyon Palmer	DAMS	28	+ 3.328
3.	Felipe Nasr	Carlin Motorsport	28	+ 4.254
4.	Nathanaël Berthon	Venezuela GP Lazarus	28	+ 17.211
5.	Daniel Abt	Hilmer Motorsport	28	+ 17.780
6.	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	28	+ 25.326
7.	Conor Daly	Venezuela GP Lazarus	28	+ 26.815
8.	Raffaele Marciello	Racing Engineering	28	+ 34.706
9.	Mitch Evans	RT Russian Time	28	+ 38.891
10.	Marco Sørensen	MP Motorsport	28	+ 40.368
11.	Stéphane Richelmi	DAMS	28	+ 45.157
12.	Andrew Quaife-Hobbs*	Rapax Team	28	+ 51.740
13.	Simon Trummer	Rapax Team	28	+ 52.509
14.	René Binder	Arden International	28	+ 55.027
15.	Julián Leal	Carlin Motorsport	28	+ 55.271
16.	Jon Lancaster	Hilmer Motorsport	28	+ 57.709
17.	Rio Haryanto	EQ8 Caterham Racing	28	+ 1:10.141
18.	Daniël de Jong*	MP Motorsport	28	+ 1:17.896
19.	Tom Dillman	EQ8 Caterham Racing	27	Collision
20.	Artem Markelov	RT Russian Time	27	Collision
21.	Takuya Izawa	ART Grand Prix	27	Collision
	Not Classified
DNF.	Stefano Coletti	Racing Engineering	24	Collision
DNF.	Kimiya Sato	Campos Racing	24	Steering
DNF.	Andre Negrão	Arden International	16	Collision
DNF.	Johnny Cecotto Jr	Trident Racing	3	Collision
DNS.	Sergio Canamasas	Trident Racing