Polish driver Kuba Giermaziak secured victory in round six of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup while Kiwi Earl Bamber kept his title hopes alive with a solid result at the Hungaroring.
Giermaziak (PL/VERVA Lechner Racing) took the win from Nicki Thiim (DK/Walter Lechner Racing) with Fach Auto Tech star Earl Bamber claiming third.
“This is a really great victory, particularly because Hungary always feels like a home race to me,” the 24-year-old Giermaziak said.
“Three wins in six races is a good yield so far this season. My aim of course is to take home the title.”
After clinching pole position Giermaziak went on to achieve a commanding lights-to-flag victory.
Giermaziak started well as International Scholarship winner Bamber was overtaken by Thiim with the order remaining the same for the 14 lap duration.
With his third victory of the championship Giermaziak leads the points race on 96 with Bamber second on 87 points. Michael Ammermuller is third on 64..
The Supercup runners will now have a break before the next race at Spa-Francorchamps from August 22-24.
GP2
After the highs of Germany, Mitch Evans faced a challenging seventh round of the GP2 Series at the Hungaroring.
Evans began the weekend with fifth in Friday practice before starting the feature race from 11th, going on to finish 12th and 10th in the respective races.
The results meant that Evans could not continue his seven-race long sequence of points hauls which included wins at Silverstone and Hockenheim.
In the feature race, Arthur Pic claimed his breakthrough GP2 win beating Stefano Coletti and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs however the podium would be revised.
Racing Engineering’s Coletti was stripped of second place after causing an accident which forced Julian Leal out of the race on lap five.
Coletti had 20s added to this time which forced him to tumble down to 20th, while Quaife-Hobbs was elevated to second with Takuya Izawa (ART) claiming third on revised positions.
In Sunday’s sprint McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne took the race by the scruff of the neck to beat Jolyon Palmer and Felipe Nasr.
With the series taking a break ahead of the next round at Spa from August 22-24, Palmer leads on 192 points ahead of Nasr’s 149.
Vandoorne’s win sees him move to third on 109 ahead of Johnny Cecotto jr (100), Coletti (96) and Evans (92).
GP3
Kiwi Richie Stanaway continued to revive his open-wheel stocks by claiming the opening race at the Hungaroring.
Stanaway spearheaded a Status Grand Prix quinella with Nick Yelloly taking a gallant second, capitalising on a mistake from Robert Visoiu who finished third.
Patric Niederhauser (Arden) went on to win the second GP3 race after a lightning start from the second row of the grid.
The ART driver Dino Zamparelli fought strongly in the 17-lap race to finish second ahead of the talented Jann Mardenborough (Arden).
Championship leader Alex Lynn was fourth for Carlin while Australian Mitch Gilbert (Trident) was 24th after finishing 20th in the opening heat.
UNITED SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Former star Newman-Haas IndyCar racer Christian Fittipaldi and partner Joao Barbosa lifted the Action Express team to victory after 108 laps at the Indianapolis road course.
It was a dominant display from the Corvette racers after the pair used race pace and strategy to win at the hallowed venue.
Barbosa recorded a 48.9s win over the Chip Ganassi Riley Daytona Prototype of Scott Pruett and his co-driver Sage Karam, who was substituting for Memo Rojas.
The win was the second for the pair who had started the year with a win in the Daytona 24 Hour race.
“Today was a nice win, even if it was 19 years after that (Indy 500 debut),” Fittipaldi said.
Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante took their Corvette Daytona Prototype to third.
RSR Racing’s Jack Hawksworth and Chris Cumming took the PC class win while SRT Viper drivers Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer landed the GT LM class.
Scuderia Corsa drivers Alessandro Balzan and Jeff Westphal took the GTD class in their Ferrari.