The driver from Sabadell converted his pole position into a win in a thrilling Saturday race. Meanwhile, the Briton fought for a podium on Sunday and ultimately finished sixth in a race where Martí also scored points
FIA Formula 2’s visit to the Hungaroring, host of the tenth round of the season held alongside the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, once again brought Campos Racing a taste of victory. Pepe Martí climbed to the top step of the podium for the third time this season, marking the team’s fifth win of the year. Both Arvid Lindblad and Martí scored points in Sunday’s Feature Race, boosting the team’s tally ahead of the summer break.
Friday kicked off with the usual single free practice session, during which the two Campos Racing drivers focused on gathering as much data as possible and fine-tuning their setups for qualifying. Early on at the Hungaroring, Lindblad set the seventh-fastest time with a lap of 1m30.997s, while Martí posted a personal best of 1m31.409s.
The first major test of the weekend came that same afternoon in qualifying. With track temperatures exceeding 40ºC, it was crucial to extract the maximum from the first or, at most, the second lap on each tyre set. After encountering traffic on their first run, which prevented them from breaking into the top ten, Lindblad delivered a lap of 1m29.213s on his second set of soft tires, securing eighth place. Martí had a slightly more difficult session, but pieced together three strong sectors to clock a 1m29.301s, which placed him tenth. That result also earned him reverse-grid pole position for Saturday’s sprint race.
Held at midday, the 28-lap sprint took place under scorching conditions once again, making tyre management a key factor. When the lights went out, Martí retained the lead ahead of Alex Dunne, who was surprised by Lindblad—starting third—snatching second place from the Irishman. The two Red Bull-backed drivers led a tightly bunched field, with everyone biding their time. On lap 8, Lindblad attempted a move on Martí down the main straight and briefly took the lead, but ran slightly wide and the Spaniard quickly reclaimed first position. The race remained stable until halfway, with the top fifteen cars running within ten seconds of each other. In the final third of the race, Dunne launched an attack and made a move on Lindblad down the inside at the end of the straight on lap 19 to take second place. This prompted Martí to pick up the pace. Dunne followed closely, while Lindblad began to struggle with tire degradation and had to defend fiercely against Jak Crawford and Victor Martins. A safety car on lap 22 added more drama to the closing stages. Once the race resumed with three laps to go, Martí responded by setting the fastest lap in an effort to pull away from Dunne. However, the Irishman closed in on the final lap, forcing Martí to dig deep to keep him at bay—something he successfully managed, crossing the line in first place. Lindblad lost one position as Crawford overtook him late on, and a five-second penalty for an earlier defensive manoeuvre dropped him from fourth to tenth in the final classification.
Sunday’s 37-lap Feature Race began with damp track conditions after overnight rain. Although it was a rolling start, all drivers opted for slick tires. Both Campos Racing drivers chose the medium compound—harder than the soft tires used by most of the front runners. The Red Bull juniors quickly gained a position at the expense of Martins. On lap 6, a Virtual Safety Car was deployed when Amaury Cordeel’s engine failed. Lindblad made the most of the restart, overtaking Oliver Goethe and Joshua Dürksen to move into fifth. Another VSC followed on lap 10 when Martins stopped on track with ongoing car issues, though the race resumed just a lap later. At this stage, the medium tire began to show better performance than the softs, as Martí demonstrated by overtaking Gabriele Minì, Goethe, and Dunne. As the soft runners began to pit, Lindblad and Martí pushed hard while running first and second in the provisional order to maximize their advantage. Lindblad pitted on lap 23, followed by Martí one lap later. Both Campos Racing drivers took a couple of laps to bring the soft compound into its optimal temperature window, costing them a few positions. Once back on pace, Lindblad made light work of Dino Beganovic and later Goethe. Martí also passed Rafael Villagómez, Sami Meguetounif, and Dürksen. In the final laps, Lindblad came under heavy pressure from Beganovic but defended superbly to secure sixth place at the checkered flag, with Martí rounding out the top ten.
Martí now sits sixth in the drivers' championship with 97 points, just ahead of Lindblad in eighth on 92. In the teams’ standings, Campos Racing holds second place with 189 points.
Following the four-week summer break in August, the championship resumes at Monza on September 6–7.
Pepe Martí (Campos Racing driver in FIA Formula 2): “Decent weekend overall, very happy with the win on Saturday from P1 doing a good management and taking the fastest lap as well. On Sunday we struggled more as a team. We were very unlucky with a VSC delta malfunction losing upwards of three seconds to the pack and then a slow pitstop. Due to that we fell into traffic on the soft compound and couldn’t bring back more points than just 10th..”
Arvid Lindblad (Campos Racing driver in FIA Formula 2): “It was a tricky weekend. We started well in Free Practice — I felt comfortable and the pace was good. In Qualifying, we struggled more than expected and didn’t put everything together, which left us out of position for both races. In the Sprint, we gained some places but it was tough in the dirty air of the midfield. The Feature Race started decently with good tyre management, but then we gambled on the strategy when the rain came and it didn’t pay off. Still, we finished and learned from it. We’ll analyse things during the break and aim to come back stronger for the final rounds.“
