• Hungarian Grand Prix - GP2

Ricci dominates GP2 sprint race

Giacomo Ricci lead from start to finish © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Hungarian GP2 round

• Championship:
• GP2 Series

• Drivers:
• Giacomo Ricci
• |
• Davide Valsecchi
• |
• Christian Vietoris

• Teams:
• DPR
• |
• iSport International
• |
• Racing Engineering

Giacomo Ricci took a lights to flag victory for DPR at the Hungarian GP2 sprint race after many of the championship leaders retired early in the race.

Ricci was joined on the podium by Christian Vietoris in the Racing Engineering and Davide Valsecchi for iSport. Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax) finished fourth ahead of Oliver Turvey (iSport) in fifth and Luca Fillippi (Super Nova) in sixth.

A spate of mechanical failures accounted for Micheal Herck (DPR), who failed to make off the front row of the grid, Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS), who was running in second place early on, and Sam Bird (ART), whose terrible luck continued after an engine failure deprived him of pole on Saturday.

Sergio Perez (Barwa Addax), currently second in the championship, also retired when he attempted a move on Valsecchi and tipped himself into a spin. In doing so he blocked the road, forcing the rest of the pack had to take avoiding action. Most the drivers scrambled past but championship leader and feature race winner Pastor Maldonado (Rapax) went into the back of Bird and damaged his front wing.

Maldonado continued for a handful of laps with a bent front wing but eventually heeded the black and orange mechanical failure flags and dived into the pits. Rapax could have fixed the car, but with points unlikely decided to retire him on the spot.

In the closing stages Valsecchi put pressure on van de Garde and finally got by with a bold move up the inside at turn two to take third. It was one of few overtaking manoeuvres offered up by the tight and twisty Hungaroring circuit.

Despite retiring, Maldonado still comfortably leads the drivers' championship.

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