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GP2 Hungary: Arthur Pic takes maiden win thanks to pit strategy

Arthur Pic scored his maiden GP2 victory at the Hungaroring on Saturday after a perfectly-timed safety car played into the hands of Campos Racing's pit strategy

Pic was the highest of the runners to start on the soft tyre from P3 on the grid, and despite a slow start that dropped him to sixth, he benefited from an effectively free pitstop when the safety car was required after his team-mate Kimiya Sato clashed with Stephane Richelmi, the latter crashing heavily into the tyrewall.

Carlin's Felipe Nasr led from pole position after rebuffing the early challenge of Tom Dillmann at Turn 1.

Points leader Jolyon Palmer passed Dillmann at Turn 1 on lap two, and then Nasr's 3.5s lead was obliterated by the safety car.

From the restart, Nasr and Palmer fought out an epic battle, but this all played into Pic's hands, who was keeping them within range so when they pitted he'd be ahead of them.

As Nasr and Palmer pitted, Pic inherited the lead ahead of Stefano Coletti, who had survived an early clash with a rival that punctured a tyre, and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs.

UPDATE: Coletti loses podium, Marciello loses race two pole

There was then a huge crash behind them, as Nathanael Berthon and Sergio Canamasas collided on the run to Turn 2, with Canamasas requiring medical treatment at the trackside.

Palmer and Nasr were running seventh and eighth respectively, having swapped positions many times before Palmer made a move stick just before the second safety car with a robust pass at Turn 1.

Palmer managed to charge back to fifth, passing Daniel Abt after the restart, which turned out to be a one-lap dash to the finish.

Nasr failed to make a move stick on the German, however, and he's now fallen to 39 points behind Palmer in the title race.

Raffaele Marciello should have won the race, as he was running ahead of Pic on a similar strategy, but he was caught speeding in the pitlane.

Despite serving a drive-through penalty, he recovered to eighth and reversed-grid pole for Sunday.

Rio Haryanto should have finished second, but his right-rear wheel fell off behind the safety car.

Results - 35 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                  Time/Gap  
 1.  Arthur Pic           Campos              1h00m18.627s
 2.  Stefano Coletti      Racing Engineering    +2.787s
 3.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Rapax                 +3.151s
 4.  Takuya Izawa         ART                   +3.661s
 5.  Jolyon Palmer        DAMS                  +3.828s
 6.  Daniel Abt           Hilmer                +5.111s
 7.  Luiz Felipe Nasr     Carlin                +5.190s
 8.  R.Marciello          Racing Engineering    +5.954s
 9.  Stoffel Vandoorne    ART                   +6.213s
10.  Nathaneal Berthon    Lazarus               +7.038s
11.  Tom Dillmann         Caterham              +7.605s
12.  Marco Sorensen       MP                    +8.102s
13.  Simon Trummer        Rapax                 +8.398s
14.  Mitchell Evans       Russian Time          +8.756s
15.  Conor Daly           Lazarus              +11.641s
16.  Daniel de Jong       MP                   +13.436s
17.  Andre Negrao         Arden                +14.224s
18.  Artem Markelov       Russian Time         +15.944s
19.  Jon Lancaster        Hilmer               +16.066s
20.  Rene Binder          Arden                  -1 lap
                                                       
Retirements:                                           
                                                       
     Rio Haryanto         Caterham              30 laps
     Sergio Canamasas     Trident               29 laps
     Jonny Cecotto Jr     Trident               22 laps
     Kimiya Sato          Campos                10 laps
     Stephane Richelmi    DAMS                   5 laps
     Julian Leal          Carlin                 5 laps

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