Esteban Gutierrez takes a dominant sprint race victory in Hungary

Esteban Gutierrez has taken his third victory of the GP2 season, after a dominant lights to flag drive for the Lotus driver. Frenchman Nathaniel Berthon came home 2nd, taking only his second podium finish of the season with Championship leader Luiz Razia 3rd just over a second ahead of Davide Valsecchi in 4th.

After the earlier rain shower which created a wet start for the GP3 race, the GP2 drivers were lucky to have a dry track to race on. At the start Esteban Gutierrez stormed into the lead ahead of Berthon, as the rest of the field safely negotiated the opening few corners. iSport International suffered a torrid start to the race, as Jolyon Palmer dropped from 3rd to 5th and Marcus Ericsson retired after a collision with Fabio Onidi.

The Italian driver was then involved in another collision several laps later, this time with the Barwa Addax driver of Johnny Cecotto jr. The Venezuelan driver tried to overtake Onidi around turn 5, and the inevitable happened as the two came together. Cecotto jr. subsequently retired, whereas Onidi continued on back to the pits.

Whilst the usual jostling for position ensued throughout the pack, Esteban Gutierrez was enjoying a commanding lead at the front. Further back, Davide Valsecchi, Giedo van der Garde, Jolyon Palmer and Stefano Coletti were immersed in a stupendous battle for 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. Eventually, after many laps of battling for position, Davide Valsecchi emerged in front of Jolyon Palmer as Giedo van der Garde plummeted down the order as his tyres began to wear.

In the end, however, it was Esteban Gutierrez who crossed the line to take victory in what was an uneventful 28 laps in comparison to the usual incident-filled melee which ensues on a Sunday morning. As the field crossed the start finish line to bring an end to the race, Spaniard Sergio Canamasas tipped Simon Trummer into the wall as the pair exited the final corner. This utterly destroyed Trummer’s race, will undoubtedly see Canamasas pick up a post race penalty.

The GP2 fraternity will now join the Formula 1 summer recess, before preparing for what is arguably the most challenging race weekend of all at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

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