Feature
It was a performance that left his rivals scratching their heads in disbelief as Victor Martins somehow guided a set of Soft Pirelli tyres to the podium on Saturday in Budapest.
After searing heat across the weekend, the ART Grand Prix driver put in his best tyre-whispering performance to earn the first of two P2 podium results of the weekend, defying logic and expectation along the way.
So, what did Martins have that the others who tried to go all the way on Softs not in the Sprint Race?
Sixth at the start quickly became fourth in the initial getaway phase from lights out. Martins got a great launch from the ‘dirty’ side of the grid and, with Zane Maloney absent after stalling on the initial grid, the Frenchman was able to claim fourth, hard but fair in squeezing Dennis Hauger out of contention heading into the first corner.
But while fellow Soft tyre starter Andrea Kimi Antonelli went on the attack up ahead to take second from Kush Maini, Martins settled for fourth and laid back from the podium places in the early phase of the race.
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Antonelli was persistent in his pursuit of race leader Richard Verschoor, running in the wake of the Trident for the first three laps before clearing the Dutchman. Martins meanwhile dropped three seconds back from the Invicta Racing car ahead in third by the time the PREMA Racing driver took the lead of the race on Lap 4.
The ART talent continued to let the gap grow in front of him while Hauger trailed in close proximity. The gap grew to 4.8s by Lap 11, but then as Antonelli began to struggle on his tyres, that gap quickly began to shrink.
Antonelli’s strategy of taking the lead as quickly as possible and then managing from the front was good in theory, but it turned out to be a gambit that didn’t work as hoped.
From Lap 12, Verschoor eased his way back into DRS range of the leader and the gap to closest Soft runner Martins in fourth dropped drastically also, down to three seconds by Lap 16 as the Italian fought to keep the lead.
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Verschoor easily took back the lead and Antonelli’s repeated lock-ups forced him into the pit lane for an unplanned stop and switch to Hards on Lap 18.
Here is where Verschoor began to make his break, easing away from Maini in second and extending the lead comfortably lap after lap, getting out to a 2.6s lead by Lap 21. Martins meanwhile had fended off Hauger and Gabriel Bortoleto, the latter also forced to make a stop after his Softs dropped off.
Having set his fastest lap of the race on Lap 6 with a 1:34.587, Martins lapped between the 1:34.7 and 1:35.5 range on every single lap following barring Laps 7, 16 and 17. In fact, as the race wore on, his laptimes stabilised while others’ dropped off, Laps 20 through to 23 were the standout, as the Alpine Academy driver achieved consistency within a tenth of a second.
The closest runner still on the Softs was Hauger, who after Lap 17 slipped into the 1:36s and then the 1:38s as he fought to keep hold of his points-paying position against Enzo Fittipaldi and Isack Hadjar.
By the time he got some clear air again on Lap 24, the MP Motorsport driver was almost 14s adrift of Martins.
While Hadjar was charging on the Hard compound, by the time he cleared Hauger, Martins had built up a healthy eight-second margin despite what was a tyre compound disadvantage on paper.
The post-race disqualification for Verschoor moved Martins up to P2 on the podium, an incredibly hard-earned result and demonstration that the ART driver hasn’t lost any of his racing ability while the team fought with the 2024 car earlier on in the season.
The past couple of rounds have demonstrated that ART are in a much stronger position than they had been back in the early phase of the campaign. All their efforts back at the workshop are beginning to pay dividends and show regularly in results, as Martins claimed his second podium of the season.
That became three on Sunday, as he made it three-consecutive top five finishes leading into the final round ahead of the summer break.
Martins and ART will be aiming to end on a high note going into the weeks off and was worth every bit of his top three result in the Budapest Sprint, displaying great tyre management and awareness of his situation throughout the event.
Here is what he had to say afterwards on how he achieved the result:
“I think the key was just accepting at the beginning to not use this advantage on the Soft’s compared to the Hard. I was just trying to keep my position, which was P4. Of course, seeing Kimi in front pulling away I was like, ‘can I push more?’ But then I knew if you push one or two laps then you drop massively after with one or the other axle of the car. I think I just kept calm with the team. I had good communication regarding the guys on Softs. When I started to feel that I could push, then I did, and I think we made it to the end quite easily. I still had a bit more so that was good.”