Noel León: 'Luck went our way but we deserved it' after Budapest victory

Noel León made the most of his opportunities on Sunday to claim his maiden FIA Formula 2 Feature Race victory.

The Campos Racing driver was fighting at the sharp end after showing great pace all weekend, and with a strong launch at lights out was up to second having gone from fourth position.

A fortuitous Virtual Safety Car arriving as he'd entered the pit lane for his mandatory stop gave him the opening he needed, and after emerging from the pit stop phase in the effective lead of the race, would not be denied the win.

Speaking in the paddock afterwards, the Mexican driver reflected on his day and how important it had been to achieve a strong result following his post-race disqualification at Spa the week prior.

"Very happy to deliver this win, to make everything right today. The team did an amazing job all weekend. We maximised our opportunities and today we got a Feature Race win. So, super happy to bounce back like this after a tough weekend in Spa.

"As I said before the weekend, this was going to be the weekend that we turn around things and we keep moving forward."

The critical moment of his race came as compatriot Rafael Villagómez came to a halt in his Van Amersfoort Racing car, bringing out the VSC but not before León had made it into the pit lane.

While it was a lucky moment in his race, the team had gambled on an intervention and brought their driver in after he'd fallen off the back of then-race leader, Kush Maini.

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• FEATURE RACE: León keeps Maini and Câmara at bay to win in Budapest

But his race wasn't decided there, as a brake issue in the final laps made for a tense finish as Maini and Rafael Câmara closed in.

"We just tried to see if we had a chance," León said of his strategy. "In the end we got lucky, sometimes things go your way. There's been a lot of times that it didn't go my way, so I'm happy that today it went ours and we won.

"It was still very, very tough to be honest to manage at the end. The situation with the brakes - my engineer was telling me to push a bit more and as soon as I told him about the brakes, he stopped telling me that because he knew that I was in trouble.

"I'm very happy I was able to stay in control and to not do any kind of mistake, so very happy with that."

The result for the Campos driver and misfortune for Alexander Dunne leaves the gap between the pair at 14 points in favour of the Rodin Motorsport driver.

More importantly though for León, it was a positive note to end the first half of the season on to go into the summer break on a high note.

"I'm just happy to get this one. It's a good way to go into the summer break to be honest. It's the best way possible and the team has been doing an amazing job. I'm happy that we got a win on the bucket list, the first Feature Race win, and we'll keep pushing.

"The coming tracks are where I'm very strong and the team is as well, so I'm very happy to continue pushing."