Budapest (AFP)
Germany's Mick Schumacher (Prema), the son of seven-time world champion Michael F1, won his first Formula 2 victory on Hungaroring in Budapest on Sunday.
"Great," he said, "I think that sums things up, it's a relief after a lot of bad luck ... (...) I was under pressure because we have a high-performance car but our results until then have often not lived up to our capabilities. "
The 20-year-old won the second race of the weekend, the one for which the positions on the starting grid are reversed from the previous day's results. His eighth place in race 1 allowed him to start in pole position.
After initially resisting the Japanese Nobuharu Matsushita, he spent 28 relatively quiet laps in the lead, on a circuit where it is very difficult to overtake.
The driver of the Carlin team, however, was closer in the last loops, hoping to push Schumacher to make a mistake.
"My tires were degrading and it was not easy to keep them alive," said the German, adding to the pressure, like constantly looking in my mirrors, it was entertaining!
"A first win always gives you a lot of confidence and I hope this result will give me a boost during the summer break and for the next round at Spa-Francorchamps" (30 August-1 September), he continued.
However, it does not push him to look too early for F1, he says: "I have to be sure to be ready by the time I get there and be as comfortable as I can team in which I will be. "
Mick Schumacher, winner in front of his mother, sister and grandmother, is 11th in the F2 drivers' standings with 45 points, against 196 in the Dutch leader Nyck de Vries (ART Grand Prix).
© 2019 AFP