Hungaroring Auto GP: Ghirelli charges to victory in race two

The Fasano racer had been the class of the field in round three, and was only denied a comfortable win in Sunday's first race through a delay during his mandatory pitstop.

"It has been a fantastic weekend," said Ghirelli. "Of course in the first race we had the issue in the pits, but the car was always really well-balanced and I could get everything out of it."

Sergio Campana came closest to matching Ghirelli for pace, and the 2013 double victor claimed a strong second.

After non-scoring in the last round in Marrakech owing to a first-lap multi-car tangle, the result keeps former Italian Formula 3 champion Campana in touch with championship leader Sato in the points race.

Camapana's competitive race showing marked a turnaround in form for the Ibiza Racing driver, after struggling for set-up direction in practice.

Riccardo Agostini completed an all-Italian podium. Adopting a different strategy from the top two men, Agostini opted for an early pitstop.

The reigning Italian F3 champion emerged on top in a tough Kumho-to-Kumho battle with reversed-grid polesitter Narain Karthikeyan and crowd favourite Tamas Pal Kiss.

Karthikeyan had made a perfect start to lead Manor MP Motorsport men Daniel de Jong and Meindert van Buuren on the opening lap. But rookie van Buuren's promising run would end when his car pulled to a halt two tours later, promoting Ghirelli into third.

Super Nova racer Ghirelli was unfazed by an early off-track moment at the uphill left-hand Turn 4 to become the early man on the move.

He swiftly picked off de Jong for second on the exit of Turn 1 before asserting pressure on Karthikeyan.

The lead was secured into Turn 2 on lap eight, and thereafter Ghirelli's only worry was caused by lapped traffic as he extended an eight-second winning margin.

Race one winner Sato made limited progress from eighth on the reversed-grid and claimed sixth.

Sato leads the standings on 97 points, five clear of Campana. Ghirelli is third on 83, 32 clear of fourth-placed Agostini.

Results - 19 laps:

Pos Driver               Team           Time/Gap
 1. Vittorio Ghirelli    Super Nova     31m11.327s
 2. Sergio Campana       Ibiza           + 7.994s
 3. Riccardo Agostini    Manor MP        + 10.262s
 4. Narain Karthikeyan   Zele            + 13.504s
 5. Tamas Pal Kiss       MLR 71          + 14.084s
 6. Kimiya Sato          Euronova        + 19.001s
 7. Daniel de Jong       Manor MP        + 19.342s
 8. Maxim Snegirev       Virtuosi UK     + 25.356s
 9. Luciano Bacheta      Zele            + 35.774s
10. Robert Visoiu        Ghinzani        + 36.736s
11. Francesco Dracone    Super Nova      + 53.189s
12. Andrea Roda          Virtuosi UK     + 1m07.457s

Retirements:

    Michele La Rosa      MLR 71           15 laps
    Yoshitaka Kuroda     Euronova         13 laps
    Giuseppe Cipriani    Ibiza            11 laps
    Meindert van Buuren  Manor MP         2  laps