Rowland battles back from tough qualifying with tenth points finish De Jong just misses out on Sprint Race top 10 after competitive run
Oliver Rowland produced a strong drive in round 12 of the GP2 Series season at the Hungaroring on Sunday, 24th July, to salvage a hard-earned top six finish for MP Motorsport – a great recovery on a weekend which looked likely to deliver no points after a tough qualifying run.
At a venue where overtaking opportunities are scarce to say the least, the Racing Steps Foundation and Renault Sport Academy supported driver made an excellent start from 11th on the grid for the ‘Sprint Race’ and despite being forced out wide at Turn One he threaded his way through to seventh place before then moving into the top six following an early Safety Car period.
Dutch team-mate Daniël De Jong also enjoyed his best performance of the sixth event of the season in the second of the weekend’s two races in Budapest, only just missing out on a top 10 finish with a competitive drive through into 11th place from 15th on the grid.
In the ‘Feature Race’ on Saturday, 23rd July, Rowland and De Jong both took strategies with late race pit-stops – the former fighting his way through from 17th on the grid to finish in 11th place with De Jong racing into the top 15 from 18th at the start.
“After the highs of Silverstone two weeks ago, this weekend has been a bit of a disappointment as qualifying didn’t go our way”, said MP Motorsport team manager Sander Dorsman, “When you’re out of the top few places on the grid in qualifying, at a track like the Hungaroring it’s always a huge challenge to try and overcome that.
“Oli did a fantastic job though to put himself in a position to score very important points for the championship on Sunday and Daniël was competitive in the Sprint Race too. We’re all focused on Hockenheim now next weekend where we aim to be back in the points in both races.”
Going into the sixth event of the season holding the championship lead, Rowland started round 11 from an uncharacteristic 17th on the grid with De Jong lining-up alongside his team-mate in 18th position. The Dutchman enjoyed the better opening lap and smartly moved up into the top 15 with Rowland edged back a spot to 18th place.
As the first pit stops began to be served as the race approached lap nine, both MP Motorsport drivers moved higher and higher up the order and at around one third distance Rowland managed to get ahead of his team-mate.
Running together in fifth and sixth at that point, they climbed as high as second and third before De Jong took his tyre-change stop at the end of lap 25. Rowland pitted five laps later and emerged back ahead of his team-mate before climbing into 11th place before the finish, De Jong taking 15th spot.
In Sunday morning’s Sprint Race, Rowland made a good launch from the sixth row and despite being forced out wide at Turn One on the outside, he managed to position his car well as he rejoined and avoided being caught-up in a multi-car collision at Turn Two to thread his way into seventh place.
Following an early Safety Car period, the Briton moved into the top six as a result of a pit-stop for Antonio Giovinazzi and then remained there to the finish with overtaking opportunities to try and climb into the top five non-existent. He ended the weekend fourth in the championship.
De Jong was slightly delayed by the lap one incident, but still managed to emerge in an improved 13th place before taking 12th when Giovinazzi pitted. Following a pit-stop for Jimmy Eriksson on lap 15, De Jong climbed into 11th place and remained there to the flag – having tried everything to break into the top 10.
MP Motorsport now prepares to head straight to Hockenheim in Germany for rounds 13 and 14 of the GP2 Series next weekend, 30th/31st July.
2016 GP2 Series Driver Standings (after Rd12):4th Oliver Rowland, 83pts; 19th Daniël De Jong, 6pts
2016 GP2 Series Team Standings (after Rd12):6th MP Motorsport, 89pts
