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For the final race weekend of the FIA Formula 2 doubleheader, Round 9 of the championship took place at the Hungaroring.
Leaving behind Spa, the team entered the weekend in third place in the teams' championship and Gabriele 27 points behind the championship leader in P2.
With a positive outlook, the team was motivated to enter Hungary to make up the deficit in the teams' and drivers' championships to maximise their points before going on the summer break.
To start the weekend in Formula 2, the MP Motorsport drivers got on track on Friday morning for the first and only free practice session of the weekend.
With Gabriele chasing to reclaim his championship lead, Gabriele and Nikola Tsolov spent the start of the session teetering between P1 and P2 with their lap times.
As the session progressed, Dino Beganovic and Nicolás Varrone came into the mix. In the end, with a solid 14 laps completed, Gabriele started the weekend on a high with a P2 in free practice for a fastest time of 1:30.741.
In a solid practice session of his own, Oliver completed 13 laps, beating other drivers' times in the final minutes of the session to come out P9 with a personal best of 1:30.959.
Free Practice Results:
Qualifying went away on Friday afternoon at the Hungaroring; the MP Motorsport drivers took to the track to optimise their performance as best as possible for solid placements for the races ahead.
On the first flying lap, Oliver initially went fastest, showing his potential pace. However, his time was offset by other drivers. Following that, Gabriele shot to P2 and slotted behind his championship rival, Nikola Tsolov, 0.193 seconds behind.
In the second lap of qualifying, with six minutes left, Gabriele had a flying lap that put him momentarily in P3 before it was offset by Joshua Dürksen.
On the final flying lap, Gabriele went wide, unable to set a better time. He ended up P9 in the session with a 1:29.341, which put him in a good position for the sprint race.
Meanwhile, Oliver left the session in P13 with his fastest time being a 1:29.585.
Qualifying Results:
To start off racing for the weekend in Formula 2, the MP Motorsport drivers took part in the sprint race with Gabriele starting in P2 and Oliver in P13.
Gabriele had an incredible race. His pace and comfort with the car were evident from the start; he had a great launch off the line, only narrowly missing his shot to overtake Sebastian Montoya on lap 1.
As the race continued, Gabriele maintained his cool, waiting for the right time to make a move for P1 while fending off Nikola Tsolov behind him. On lap 3, Gabriele began his push, putting out purple sectors and fastest lap times in an attempt to chase Sebastian Montoya, who had pulled away.
He held off on the chase for a couple of laps, saving his tyres, only beginning to push again on lap 8, where he did end up close enough to Sebastian Montoya, attempting a pass at T2 but was unsuccessful.
A following eight laps later, Gabriele began his chase again, this time being successful. On lap 17, Gabriele overtook Sebastian Montoya around the outside of T1, following team instructions to commit to one well-timed overtake to not lose out on time, which Gabriele executed perfectly, moving into the lead of the race, and held that position to the flags.
Oliver, starting further down the grid, had a tougher race than his teammate to make up places. On the launch off the line, Oliver lost a position and fell to P14, and on the following lap he lost another position to Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. Lap 7 saw a small battle with Ritomo Miyata for P15, in which Oliver came out of the lap with the position.
Continuing his climb, Oliver on the following lap reclaimed his position from Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. to take P14. For the bulk of the race, Oliver maintained that position. With seven laps to go, Nikola Tsolov and Sebastian Montoya experienced contact, resulting in both drivers inevitably being out of the race. As a result, Oliver was promoted to P12, a position in which he held to the finish line.
Sprint Race Results:
Ending the final weekend of Formula 2 racing before the summer break, the MP Motorsport drivers took to the track at the Hungaroring one more time for the feature race, with Gabriele starting in P8 and Oliver P13.
With the race requiring a compulsory pit stop, both Gabriele and Oliver started on separate strategies, with Oliver starting on the mediums and Gabriele on the softs.
Following Gabriele's race, on the launch he maintained his P8 starting position up until he pitted for soft tyres at the end of lap 14, where he came out just behind his teammate in P16. A couple of laps later, Mari Boya, Ritomo Miyata and Noel León all pitted, which promoted Gabriele to P13. This continued with more drivers pitting across laps 23 to 25, which promoted Gabriele to P8. By lap 26, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was on the back of Gabriele on fresher tyres, and therefore capable of overtaking Gabriele on the older medium tyres, demoting him to P9.
Gabriele’s battles in the final laps of the race were not over, as on the following lap he battled with Dino Beganovic, who was also on fresher soft tyres, and who overtook Gabriele for P9. After falling to P10, Gabriele was met with another challenge from his championship rival, Nikola Tsolov, immediately in his mirrors.
Unlike the previous battles, Gabriele took a more aggressive defensive approach towards the Campos Racing driver, working hard to delay his rival from making up more positions and moving forward up the leaderboard.
Oliver pitted on lap 29, which promoted Gabriele to P9. On this lap, Gabriele cleared Nikola Tsolov, but unfortunately, a lap later, the Campos Racing driver overtook Gabriele after he went wide, demoting Gabriele to P10. Near the closing laps of the race, the final unpitted driver, Alex Dunne, pitted, which promoted Gabriele to P9. Gabriele held onto the position to the flag to finish in a solid P9.
On an opposite strategy from his teammate, Oliver, starting in P13, fell to P15 on the launch and dropped back further to P20 by the end of lap 1. Oliver had a long stint on his medium tyres, initially making up many positions due to early pit stops by other teams.
On lap 8, Nicolás Varrone pitted, which brought Oliver to P19, then on the following lap Colton Herta and Sebastian Montoya pitted, which promoted Oliver further to P16.
Oliver moved up further when Gabriele pitted on lap 15 and then Joshua Dürksen on lap 16, all promoting Oliver to P14. Before the end of lap 16, Oliver overtook Rafael Villagómez for P13 before the Van Amersfoort Racing driver DNF’ed from the race.
Across the following three laps, more drivers pitted, which promoted Oliver to P8. On lap 20, Noel León on newer tyres attempted an overtake on Oliver, although Oliver defended hard and did not let the Campos Racing driver through easily. Eventually, Oliver was passed and fell to P9.
More drivers pitted across the following four laps, which brought Oliver up to P5 by lap 24. On this lap, Oliver was overtaken by Kush Maini and Rafael Câmara – both on newer tyres – although Laurens van Hoepen also attempted to make a move on Oliver, but he defended well to hold onto his P7 position.
Finally, with six laps remaining, Oliver pitted for the soft tyre, where he came out in P20. Making his best efforts in the remaining laps to make up positions, Oliver on lap 32 overtook Cian Shields to finish in P19, and after post-race penalties were distributed, P18.
Feature Race Results:
In a weekend with mixed feelings, MP Motorsport wrapped up round 9 in Budapest with a win in the sprint race for Gabriele and points scored in the feature race.
With solid pace in free practice and qualifying, an unfortunate final lap in qualifying resulted in Gabriele qualifying lower than he could have, although his placement aided in his ability to win the sprint race, contributing to cutting his point deficit to the lead of the championship to 20 points.
Although not an outstanding weekend, Oliver aided his teammate with a tow momentarily during the feature race to support him in slowing Nikola Tsolov from progressing up the field. Alongside that, he did make up a solid amount of positions before pitting on the opposite strategy in the feature race.
Overall, there were key highlights and room for improvement in the race, and the team will return after the summer break in September with a drive to push for improvement for the final stretch of races in the 2026 season.
Driver Standings After Round 9:
Team Standings After Round 9:
