Adrian Quaife-Hobbs clinched a dominant win in the first race of the Hungaroring Auto GP weekend
The championship leader took the checkered flag with a 29” advantage on second placed Victor Guerin, who gave SuperNova a much welcome one-two finish.
Quaife-Hobbs win came in dominant fashion, but the start of his race wasn’t an easy one: from the front row Adrian and team-mate Guerin got too much wheelspin and where passed by both Pål Varhaug and Sergey Sirotkin: the Russian made a rocket getaway to lead into Turn 1 but arriving at the corner slightly too quick he ran wide and forced Quaife-Hobbs slightly off-line in the process. Pål Varhaug made the most of it and took the lead, but Sirotkin answered to that with a bold move around the outside of the Virtuosi UK racer into Turn 2 and reclaimed 1st position. Pål and Sergey fought for the whole lap but the hotter moment came at the end of it, when the pair entered last turn side by side: Sirotkin lost the rear a bit and oversteered into Varhaug, dropping the Virtuosi UK driver in P5: with a bent track rod after the contact the Norwegian couldn’t drive at his best and had to settle for a hard-earned fifth place finish, while Sirotkin was passed by Quaife-Hobbs who then started his winning charge.
His progression was impressive: the advantage on Sirotkin grew to 10” already at lap 8 and then passed the 20” mark at lap 15, just before his pit-stop. The tyre change from the SuperNova guys was fine and Adrian’s pace in the last laps was still in the low 1’34”, allowing him to cross the line with no worries at all.
The fight for 2nd place, in the meantime, was a hot duel between Sirotkin and Daniel de Jong, with Guerin following them closely in fourth place: the gap between the two never got over 2” and with both choosing a late pit-stop strategy the in and out laps were set to become the deciding moments: what nobody was expecting is that a sudden turn of the events would have forced both to retire: Sirotkin got stuck on track with a gearbox issue after his tyre change, while De Jong stalled his car entering the pits and lost a lot of time in firing it up again.
So a very consistent Guerin inherited second place, with Regalia securing P3. Starting from eight place on the grid the Argentinian driver of Campos Racing passed Varhaug on lap 3 and then opted for an early pit-stop that allowed him to drive on a clear track in the second part: pushing as hard as possible Facu kept his fifth place safe, and then made the most of the retirements in front of him to get a well deserved podium finish. Giancarlo Serenelli clinched the best result of his Auto GP season with fourth place, ahead of Varhaug and Giuseppe Cipriani, who crowned a good weekend with his best Auto GP performance so far. Chris van der Drift was 7th after a good recovery from P16 on the grid after yesterday’s bad luck in qualifying. The kiwi driver closed the race ahead of Antonio Spavone, who will start from pole in tomorrow’s Race 2. Top ten was closed by Sten Pentus and Francesco Dracone, while three cars didn’t complete enough laps to be classified. The reason is a crash at Turn 1 caused by a late braking by Max Snegirev, who then collected both Sergio Campana and Adderly Fong.
Budapest, Race 1 Result
1 Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS Supernova International, 19 laps in 30’39”787, avg 162.80 kph
2 Victor GUERIN Supernova International +29.614
3 Facu REGALIA Campos Racing +41.637
4 Giancarlo SERENELLI Ombra Racing +55.683
5 Pal VARHAUG Virtuosi UK +1:02.960
6 Giuseppe CIPRIANI Campos Racing +1:03.818
7 Chris VAN DER DRIFT Manor MP Motorsport +1:05.006
8 Antonio SPAVONE Euronova Racing +1:05.650
9 Sten PENTUS Zele Racing +1:06.098
10Francesco DRACONE Virtuosi UK +1:12.786
11 Daniel DE JONG Manor MP Motorsport +1:17.040
12 Michele LA ROSA MLR 71 +1:28.500
13 Sergey SIROTKIN Euronova Racing +4 LAPS
NC Adderley FONG Ombra Racing
NC Sergio CAMPANA MLR 71
NC Max SNEGIREV Campos Racing
FASTEST LAP
Lap 11 by Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS, 1:33.924, avg 167.91kph
Drivers Standings: 1. Quaife-Hobbs 132; 2. Varhaug 85; 3. Sirotkin 76; 4. Van der Drift 75; 5. Regalia 51; 6. De Jong 43; 7. Campana 39; 8. Guerin 34; 9. Ricci 30; 10. Spavone and Snegirev 22; 12. Serenelli 17; 13. Cipriani 11; 14. Cunha 8; 15. Dracone 5; 16. Fong and Pentus 4.
Under 21 Standings: 1. Quaife-Hobbs 147; 2. Sirotkin 106; 3. Varhaug 97; 4. Regalia 66; 5. Guerin 54; 6. Spavone 52; 7. De Jong 49; 8. Cunha 24; 9. Beretta 9.
Teams Standings: 1. SuperNova International 166; 2. Manor MP 118; 3. Euronova 98; 4. Virtuosi UK 91; 5. Campos Racing 83; 6. MLR71 39; 7. Zele Racing 32; 8. Ombra Racing 29
Budapest, Race 1: the drivers quotes
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs stretched his championship lead winning today’s Race 1 in Budapest. The young brit clinched his third success of the season ahead of team-mate Victor Guerin, with Facu Regalia taking the second third place of 2012 for Campos Racing. Here is what they said after the race:
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
After seeing how you clinched pole yesterday you were the clear favourite for today, but you tried to make it difficult for yourself with a bad start. Tell us about that first lap.
“I was not trying to make it difficult for myself (laughs), I just got it a bit wrong. I practiced a couple of starts during the pre-grid and warm up laps and I saw that the grip was good, I had no wheelspin at all. That’s why I thought that using a bit more throttle in the real start would have been good, but I was wrong and I had too much wheelspin. That’s why Sergey and Pål passed me both. Anyway I immediately saw that they were being a bit over-zealous, Sirotkin pushed me on the grass at the exit of Turn 1 and was really driving aggressively. Maybe it was because they knew my pace, and so they were feeling the pressure to go in the lead and try to build a gap”.
In that first lap did you think that your win was in doubt?
“No, actually the start was the only bad moment of my race and the only mistake I did today. Obviously I wasn’t happy, but at the same time I knew that my advantage was such that I could have passed both at the pit-stop, just staying out a couple of laps more than them if it was the case. I was really happy of the car today, even in the last few laps I was lapping on the low 1’34” pace, so it means that everything was really perfect. Even if I had a big advantage I didn’t think about backing off because I was feeling comfortable with that speed”.
Victor Guerin
Exactly as your team-mate you got the start wrong, what did happen?
“I really don’t know, I just had too much wheelspin and then tried to cope with it in the best possible way. Anyway the moment was so eventful that I forgot to use the Overboost button, so for Sirotkin, Varhaug and de Jong passing me was even easier. Then my pace was good but here in Hungoring overtaking is really, really difficult, so I could just follow Sirotkin and de Jong closely”.
At that point did a second place still seem possible?
“No, I didn’t deem it possible. Third place was a possibility because everybody can make a mistake, like it happened for de Jong, but second place seemed too much and I think that without the issue that stopped Sergey I would have been third. Anyway, I wasn’t lucky in the first events of the championship, my potential was always good but sometimes I didn’t got what I deserved, so a bit of luck today is welcome. It’s my first Auto GP podium and it feels really good”.
Facu Regalia
You were starting from P8 on the grid, so getting a podium finish means a great recovery drive. Tell us how it felt from the cockpit.
“We knew that our potential here was much better than the 8th place we got in yesterday’s qualifying. Yesterday we were P2 with our first set of tyres, but then we didn’t manage to improve with the second one as everybody else did, we had some problems that prevented us from doing so. For today we decided for an early pit-stop because having a clear track ahead of me was the only way to recover on such a twisty track. I got a good start, the car was working well and we did a good job also in the pits, so we can be happy with ourselves”.
You were one of the few to manage an overtaking on track passing Varhaug, tell us how you did it.
“I was behind Pål and I thought that probably he had some issues (a bent track rod after a contact with Sirotkin) because he was much slower than me. Anywway I knew that passing him was really important not to spoil my strategy, so I got behind him at the last corner and got a better exit, then passing him on the straight with the help of the Overboost. It was a good move, I really wanted to get a good result for me and the team because we are working really hard”.
source: Auto GP, autogp.org