Academy Report: Alessandro's home heroics

Alessandro Giusti secured his first race win with Williams Racing backing by storming to P1 at Paul Ricard on Sunday.

But the Frenchman wasn't the only member of our Driver Academy in action, with F2 and F3 joining F1 in Hungary.

See how all our young single-seater stars fared this weekend below.

Alessandro isn't a stranger to P1 in Formula Regional after taking a trio of top-step trips last year.

His Race 2 at Paul Ricard will mean a lot, though, with his home round being the site of his first win in 2023, and again in 2024.

It wasn't a straightforward victory, either, with rain meaning that the race would begin behind the Safety Car.

Alessandro started in P5 and had just 20 minutes to make up positions once the green flag waved for racing to begin.

Yet the 17-year-old racer's wet weather confidence immediately shone, and he was up to P2 in a matter of corners after the Safety Car peeled in.

His pace advantage meant Alessandro quickly closed in on the lead before another SC appearance, and he perfected his second restart to steal the lead into Turn 1 to secure victory.

Race 1 saw a steady 30 minutes of action for a P7 finish, with Alessandro gradually extending the gap to teammate Evan Giltaire behind to take yet another top-10 result.

Tyre strategies helped and hindered Franco Colapinto in F2's Hungarian round.

A split in the Sprint Race field had other drivers choosing softs and getting past our Argentinian ace in the opening laps, dropping hard-tyre-starting Franco to P10.

Yet the performance came back as the laps ticked by, and the 21-year-old's patience was rewarded with P5 and four valuable championship points.

Safety Car timing and an extended soft-tyre stint in the Feature Race hurt Franco's chances on Sunday, where he shuffled down the standings to finish P13.

A frustrating Hungarian trip for Zak O'Sullivan had our British F2 hopeful leave Budapest without points after fighting with tyres.

A gamble to take the softs in the Sprint Race didn't pay off, and he needed to pit before the chequered flag, eventually finishing P19.

Safety Car timing helped those on the alternate strategy in the Feature Race to fight forward in the last laps, rendering those like Zak powerless to defend.

His incredible work to take six places on the opening lap to reach P9 fell away in the slowdown, and he finished P14.

A qualifying crash meant Luke Browning's Hungarian weekend was going to be a battle as he'd start from P15 in both races.

Yet battling was what Luke did, and he closed in on the championship leader with some mature and fast driving.

Three positions in the opening lap and avoiding damage during a VSC kept him in the Sprint Race hunt, and some Turn 1 overtakes helped the 22-year-old Brit take P8 and three valuable points.

He fought his title rival Gabriele Minì throughout the Feature Race and eventually secured a P12 classification after a rival's disqualification.

Luke heads into the final two rounds just four points behind Minì.

Alessandro now has plenty of time to enjoy his winner's trophy with FRECA's summer break already starting.

There's no such stoppage for our F2 and F3 drivers, though, who must tackle Spa-Francorchamps this weekend before the August slowdown.