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Pentus wins Hungaroring race two

Sten Pentus scored his second victory of the Formula Renault 3.5 season at the Hungaroring to move into third place in the drivers' standings

The polesitter was in control throughout, only losing the lead during the mandatory pitstop sequence.

The race was red-flagged on lap 26 when Brendon Hartley's Tech 1 machine stopped in a dangerous position at Turn 3. The result was declared after 24 laps, with Pentus holding a 6.2-second winning margin over front row starter Albert Costa. The Epsilon Euskadi driver's second position is his best result of the year.

Fortec's Pentus had held a 3.5s lead over Costa when the Spaniard made an early pit call on lap five. Although the gap was reduced to just over a second when Pentus emerged from his own stop on lap eight, the Estonian was once more able to pull away.

"It was easier out in front today rather than following someone," said Pentus. "Yesterday, I saw that Hartley was so much quicker than me and I wanted to find out why. We analysed the data and found it. I've had a difficult couple of months, and it has taken time for everything to stand up again."

Mikhail Aleshin fought off a determined challenge from Daniel Zampieri (Pons) to seal third place. The Carlin driver has extended his lead in the championship to 11 points over race one winner Daniel Ricciardo, who could only manage sixth place for Tech 1 today.

From fourth on the grid, Greg Mansell negotiated the first two corners in attacking fashion to rise to third. The Comtec man was chased by Aleshin and Zampieri in the early laps, before opting for a late pitstop strategy. Aleshin jumped Mansell during the pitstop phase, while Zampieri took fourth after finding an opening on lap 20. Fifth place equals Mansell's highest finish of the season.

Mansell's Comtec team-mate Stefano Coletti ran in sixth place in the initial stages, but lost ground after his pitstop. Coletti survived a late-race collision at Turn 2 with Renault Formula 1 reserve driver Jan Charouz to pick up the final point. Charouz suffered a left rear puncture in the incident.

Jon Lancaster's difficult spell continued. The Fortec driver was unable to get away from the grid for the second meeting in succession, but would eventually set the second fastest lap.

Formula Renault 3.5 now enjoys a long summer break before the next round at Hockenheim on September 4-5.

Pos  Driver             Team                Time/Gap
 1.  Sten Pentus        Fortec            39m00.851s
 2.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi     + 6.292s
 3.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin              + 8.921s
 4.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons                + 9.489s
 5.  Greg Mansell       Comtec             + 11.233s
 6.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1             + 13.990s
 7.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP                + 14.523s
 8.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin             + 29.197s
 9.  Brendon Hartley    Tech 1             + 29.539s
10.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec             + 35.143s
11.  Walter Grubmuller  P1                 + 36.888s
12.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus       + 39.396s
13.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco              + 40.189s
14.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus       + 40.838s
15.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi    + 41.344s
16.  Julian Leal        Draco              + 42.180s
17.  Federico Leo       Pons               + 43.381s
18.  Victor Garcia      KMP                + 43.834s
19.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  + 1m04.608s
20.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  + 1m05.364s
21.  Jan Charouz        P1               + 1m12.357s
22.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec              + 3 laps

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