Alex Dunne drops to fifth in F2 Championship standings after ninth place finish at Hungaroring feature race
However, Ireland's Alex Dunne was brought back down to earth from Saturday's sprint race podium after struggling to a ninth place finish, having started the race in that same position on the grid.
The race got underway with a rolling start in slightly tricky conditions on a partially wet track, as pole-sitter Stanek held position ahead of Fornaroli and Crawford.
A fierce midfield battle emerged behind them, involving Dunne (Rodin Motorsport), Joshua Duerksen (AIX Racing), Oliver Goethe (MP Motorsport), Arvid Lindblad, Pepe Marti (both Campos), and Richard Verschoor (MP).
Early drama came on lap 6 as Amaury Cordeel's stricken Rodin Motorsport car brought out a Virtual Safety Car (VSC), the first of two on the day with racing resuming on the eighth lap.
Lindblad had made strong early progress on the medium compound tyres, jumping up to fifth with a bold move on Duerksen and Goethe, the latter of whom later ran wide trying to re-pass Lindblad and also dropped behind Dunne and Duerksen.
The Virtual Safety Car was signalled once again with Victor Martins stopping his ART Grand Prix on track at the exit of turn 12.
Green flag conditions returned on lap 11, and looking to get the jump on Lindblad, Goethe ran wide at lurn 12, dropping him to eighth behind Duerksen and Dunne.
Dunne and Duerksen then went wheel-to-wheel down the main straight, with the Irishman taking sixth from the AIX Racing driver, despite a lockup into turn 2.
But that was as good as it got for the medium compound-shod Offaly racer as strategy shaped the race, with early pit stops for the soft-tyre runners seeing Fornaroli leapfrog Stanek by staying out longer.
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Lindblad and his Campos teammate Josep Maria Marti led for a stint on the alternate strategy, but their challenge faded as they struggled to warm up their tyres post-pit stop. Verschoor capitalised, climbing to fifth with a solid strategy call but a poor pit stop for Dunne saw him drop down the field.
The race came to a head in the final laps, as Crawford attempted to challenge Stanek for second, locking up into turn 1 and losing momentum, allowing Fornaroli to build a decisive gap. He crossed the line 7.2 seconds clear to nullify his penalty in a dominant win, as Invicta celebrated their one-two.
Behind the podium finishers, Luke Browning claimed fourth, with Verschoor fifth and Lindblad narrowly fending off Dino Beganovic for sixth. Goethe, Dunne and Marti rounded out the points.
Fornaroli's victory marks his third consecutive weekend with a win after taking sprint honours at Silverstone and Spa and extends his lead at the top of the standings to 17 points on 154. Crawford has moved up to second on 137 points, with Verschoor now on 135, Browning fourth on 125 points, while Dunne rounds out the top five on 124.
The series will now see a month's break with the drivers returning for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza for round 11 on September 05-07, the first of four remaining race weekends.
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