Pierre Gasly takes second GP2 win in Hungary feature race - MotorSportsTalk

Red Bull junior driver Pierre Gasly swept to his second GP2 Series victory in the space of two weeks with a dominant display at the Hungaroring on Saturday afternoon.

Victory in the feature race at Silverstone saw Gasly end a win drought dating back almost three years to his Formula Renault 2.0 days and move back into contention for the championship.

The Frenchman would have to wait just 14 days for his second GP2 win to come about as he fended off charges from Antonio Giovinazzi, Sergey Sirotkin and Raffaele Marciello to win in Budapest.

A good start allowed Gasly to control the early part of the race before pitting to the hard tire, at which point he was left to battle with cars running an alternate strategy.

Ex-Ferrari academy member Marciello looked to extend his prime stint before making the switch to the soft compound late on. The Italian put his fresh rubber to good use, cutting the gap to Gasly, Giovinazzi and Sirotkin after emerging from the pits behind the trio.

Arden’s Jimmy Eriksson rolled the dice on an ambitious strategy, pitting from the lead with just two laps remaining. The Swede came back out in eighth place, but retired after running out of fuel just half a lap from the finish.

Gasly had kept his cool, regaining the lead when Eriksson finally pitted with Giovinazzi and Sirotkin two seconds further back before crossing the line to claim his second victory in the space of two weeks.

Giovinazzi held Sirotkin off to complete a one-two finish for Prema, leaving the Russian to settle for P3. Marciello finished fourth ahead of Arthur Pic and Nobuharu Matsushita, while Norman Nato was seventh. Jordan King finished eighth for the third feature race in a row, giving him pole for Sunday’s sprint race in Hungary.

Victory gives Gasly a seven-point lead in the drivers’ standings ahead of Giovinazzi, with Marciello a further 12 points behind.

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In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

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