GP2 2013 Germany

The GP2 series went to Nürburgring and the DAMS team showed great pace in qualifying to take the front row with Stéphane Richelmi on pole position and Marcus Ericsson in 2nd place. Robin Frijns got 3rd position on the grid, while Mitch Evans was 4th and Felipe Nasr 5th. The championship leader Stefano Coletti had a tough qualifying and was going to start the first race in 13th place.

Race 1:

Marcus Ericsson was able to take the lead of the race after the start. Richelmi kept 2nd place and Mitch Evans tried to challenge the DAMS duo coming into the first corner, but he went wide and dropped positions. Nasr and Frijns fought for position and managed to get 3rd and 4th. The Safety Car was called out as there was a dramatic looking accident at the back of the field straight after the lights went out: Kevin Ceccon touched Daniel Abt's car on the start and Ceccon's car rolled around and hit Adrian Quaife-Hobbs who had stalled his car on the grid. It was a strange and nasty looking accident, but thankfully nobody got hurt. It was race over for both Ceccon and Quaife-Hobbs, but Abt was able to continue. The drivers went through pitlane behind the Safety Car as marshalls worked on the start-finish straight cleaning cars and debris away.

There was a new feature added for the GP2 races during the weekend as team radios were introduced to GP2 race broadcasts. Johnny Cecotto reported on the radio that car 17 (Rio Hariyanto) overtook him while the Safety Car was on track and it was reported to the race stewards. Later it was revealed that several drivers were under investigation for overtaking under the Safety Car including Evans, Canamasas, Hariyanto, Coletti, Crestani and De Jong. The investigation was going to take place after the race.

The Safety Car came in on lap 4 and racing was on again. Ericsson led from Richelmi, Nasr, Frijns and Calado, who was putting a lot of pressure on Frijns in front. There was action in the middle of the field as Julian Leal went off the track and spun, dropping himself to last. Jake Rosenzweig was fighting for a position with Nathanaël Berthon but he was a little bit too optimistic with his move and pushed Berthon into a spin.

Nasr was the first driver to come in for his pitstop on lap 5. He started the race with super soft and changed to mediums. It was going to be challenging to keep those tyres in good shape for the remaining 29 laps. Rene Binder came in on the same lap and lost a lot of time during his pitstop. Frijns was challenging Richelmi for 2nd place but couldn't make the move, so he came in for his pitstop on lap 9. The race leader Ericsson made his own stop a lap after and Richelmi stayed out longer, pitting on lap 12. He rejoined the track in front of Nasr and Calado, but it wasn't easy with new tyres and he soon lost positions to Nasr, Calado and Frijns.

Tom Dillmann was now leading the race as he was yet to make his pitstop. When he came into the pits with 17 laps left, it was a disappointing stop as his car stalled and he lost a lot of time. Meanwhile on the track Calado was able to pass Nasr after chasing the Brazilian for many laps. Next up it was Frijns who was closing on Nasr and it seemed the Carlin driver was struggling with his tyres. The early pitstop not seeming to work as planned. Frijns soon made the move on Nasr on the first corner and at the same time, Calado was able to pass Leal. Frijns made a mistake later on and lost the position back to Nasr. Richelmi, Rossi and Leimer were all very close behind Frijns and it was 5 cars that were involved in a close fight. The Nasr vs. Frijns battle continued and Frijns was able to get his lost position back.

Stefano Coletti had made his way up the field as he pitted late and started to pass the guys in front with his fresher rubber. He was already catching Richelmi and Nasr who were battling for position and soon he was right behind Richelmi and made the move. It didn't take long when Coletti was already challenging his main championship rival Nasr and got past and was already running 5th in the race. There were few race laps left as time had run down with the safety car laps reducing the laps available.

With 6 minutes left on the clock, Nasr's struggle continued and he got passed by Richelmi, Leimer and Dillmann, dropping him to the 8th position. Coletti meanwhile was flying and was already up to 4th, challenging Frijns' 3rd place. The battle continued with really close racing,the cars side by side for almost 3 laps and on the last lap, Richemi and Leimer were right on the back of the battling duo Coletti and Frijns. It was an amazing battle and in the last few corners Coletti tried to make his move on Frijns but had to go wide. He recovered and kept fighting and in the final corner he got past from Frijns and got himself onto the podium. Richelmi and Leimer were in the battle too and all four drivers came to the finish line still fighting.

Marcus Ericsson won the race and the Swedes' bad start of the season finally turned into a victory. Calado had a strong result and was 2th, and Coletti finished 3rd after the great battle on the last lap. Leimer managed to pull himself to 4th and Richelmi 5th, while Frijns dropped to 6th. Lancaster was 7th, Dillmann 8th, Nasr 9th after his team’s strategy had gone wrong and Cecotto got the last point on 10th. After the race, there were no penalties given for the Safety Car period investigation.

Race 2:
Dillmann started race 2 from pole position as he finished race 1 in 8th place. He had the Hilmer Motorsport duo Lancaster and Frijns behind him. Next up on the grid it was Richelmi, Leimer, Coletti, Calado, Ericsson, Nasr and Cecotto.

Lancaster had a great start and went into the lead as Dillmann didn't start very well. Frijns start also wasn't very good and he dropped a lot of positions. Lancaster was able to pull a gap on the field and Dillmann was heading a long car train behind him, having Calado putting pressure on him from the very first lap. The Safety Car was needed again after two laps as Richelmi and De Jong had contact which caused Richelmi to spin and his car was stalled in the middle of the track.

The Safety Car came in and the racing was on again. Alexander Rossi made a move on Coletti and dropped the championship leader to 10th position. Calado continued challenging Dillmann's 2nd position. Calado was able to pass Dillmann on lap 5 and Leimer was going to use the same window and almost had a chance to pass both Dillmann and Calado, but Calado stayed in front.

A couple of laps later Frijns had gained an advantage over Nasr and went looking for Sam Bird, but he ended up making a too optimistic move: he touched Bird's car, spun himself and dropped to last position. The move was investigated by the stewards, but there was no action taken.

Dillmann was in trouble with the guys behind and he was faced with a technical problem with 13 laps of the race left. The problem might have been the reason why he wasn't very competitive from the start and it was the end of his race. Coletti made a surprise move and came to the pits for a tyre change, the Monegasque had struggled on the early part of the race and was out of the points position, so they tried to find some pace from the new tyres to possibly get into the points as there was nothing to lose.

With 7 laps left, Calado was catching Lancaster in the lead and was really looking for the victory after a difficult start of the season. It seemed Calado’s form was getting back to the level that everyone expected him to be at at the beginning of the season. Leimer was running third and behind the top 3 it was a close battle between Ericsson, Bird, Nasr and Cecotto. Nasr was able to overtake Bird for 5th place, and Ericsson said on the team radio that he was struggling with his rear tyres. The fight for positions continued and Bird made a mistake coming into the first corner which helped Cecotto to get very close. The two touched which made Bird lose positions to Cecotto, Rossi and Evans. During all this action, Nasr also made his move on Ericsson and was now up to 4th position. The DAMS driver was in trouble and he lost positions to Cecotto, Rossi, Evans and Bird in the last few laps.

Jon Lancaster won the race and it was another sprint race win for him after his win in the sprint race at Silverstone. In the end, Calado couldn't challenge Lancaster and finished 2nd. Leimer climbed to the 3rd place on the podium. Nasr was 4th, Cecotto 5th, Rossi 6th, Evans 7th and Bird 8th. Coletti's tyre change didn't work out and he finished the race in 20th position.

After Germany the series takes a 3 week break before the next two races in Hungary. Coletti leads the championship with 135 points and is 27 points in front of Nasr in the standings. Bird is third in the table and is 18 points behind Nasr and 45 points behind Coletti. The championship continues to be very interesting as the championship leaders haven’t had very strong results in the last 4 races.