GP2 2013 Malasia

GP2 Qualifying:

The weekend began with action and adrenaline during the qualifying session on Friday. Johnny Cecotto and Sam Bird had a questionable situation at the end of the session. Bird apparently was in front Cecotto when the Venezuelan driver was on his last qualifying lap. Afterwards, when Bird went away from the racing line, Cecotto made a very dangerous move on Bird and pushed him off the track deliberately, the stewards penalised both of the drivers. Cecotto was dropped to the back of the grid, with all his Qualifying time deleted due to his dangerous driving. Sam Bird was dropped 3 positions down on the grid and started the race on 10th. The pole position for the Saturday's race went to Stefano Coletti in his Rapax. Coletti got James Calado and Felipe Nasr behind him on second and third positions, the top 3 were separated by only 0,008 seconds! The qualifying was an incredibly close fight.

GP2 Race 1, Feature Race:

Saturday's race started with sunny conditions. Fabio Leimer who started 4th on the grid managed to get a very good start and got himself up to second. He was close to get even the 1st position straight after the start. Behind the top 2 it was a close call for others – Calado and Nasr had a fight which forced both of drivers to go a little bit wide. Mitch Evans took advantage with his Arden and went into 3rd position in front of the fighting duo. Meanwhile in the middle of the grid, DAMS driver Marcus Ericsson had a moment with Carlin's Jolyon Palmer. Ericsson crashed into Palmer's rear and it was the end of the race for the Swede. Palmer was able to continue his way though. Coletti and Leimer were fighting as Coletti was really struggling with a big tyre wear. Behind the top 2, Calado and Nasr got past Evans and came back to 3rd and 4th positions. Meanwhile, MP Motorsport drivers Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and Daniel De Jong collided. Coletti was the first driver to come into the pits and change to the harder tyre compound. When the top guys went to the pits, Palmer took advantage as he started with the harder compound from 22th position and was able to stay out for longer than those who started with softer tyres. The strategy paid well for him, as he finished the race with great points on 6th. At the front, Coletti found himself struggling with the tyres again and Leimer was really pushing hard behind with much better pace and much more competitive looking tyres. The duo fought for several laps, and Leimer finally got past to lead with 4 laps left. James Calado soon also took advantage of the struggling Coletti and got 2nd place. Felipe Nasr started to catch the struggling Rapax driver too, but in the end he finished 4th only one second behind Coletti. Leimer opened the season with a victory and good pace. James Calado's ART team mate Daniel Abt was out of the race after a spin. After the race, Quaife-Hobbs was handed a 5 positions grid penalty for Sunday's race.

GP2 Race 2, Sprint Race:

In Sunday's sprint race it was Stephane Richelmi who was on pole position after reversing the top 8 of Saturday's race with Bird 2nd, Palmer 3rd, Leal 4th, Nasr 5th, Coletti 6th, Calado 7th and the Saturday's race winner Fabio Leimer on 8th. Before the race, Caterham confirmed that Ma Qing Hua wouldn't be able to start to the race because of illness.

There was a chance of rain during the race, but the shower never arrived. Difficulties started on the warm up lap for Jolyon Palmer as he stopped his car on the grid and was pushed to the pits. He had to start the race from the pitlane. At the start, Coletti was able to pull into the lead after a great start. Richelmi took 2nd and Nasr 3rd. James Calado meanwhile tried to make his way up the order, but ended up braking too late, went wide, and crashed into Leimer's car. Sam Bird and Julian Leal suffered major damage in the accident, too. Leimer was able to continue the race, but other drivers involved had to retire. After the race, Calado got a penalty of 10 grid positions for the next race for causing the collision. Of the top 3, Nasr was able to overtake Richelmi for 2nd place and started keeping a consistent pace and saving tyres behind. The other Carlin driver Palmer was making his way up very well from the back after starting from the pits.

All the drivers tried to be careful with the tyres as there is no pitstop in the sprint race, so keeping tyres fresh was a very important thing as the Sepang Circuit is very hard on tyres. In the final part of the race, Mitch Evans overtook Richelmi for 3rd position as the DAMS driver started to struggle with tyres. At the front, Nasr was pressuring Coletti and cut the gap to under one second. Coletti was able to keep the lead however and win the race, with Nasr straight behind in 2nd place and Evans in 3rd taking his first GP2 podium. Palmer finished in 9th place just out of the points after starting from the pitlane.

The first weekend was full of action and it was a great start for the long season ahead. Coletti leads the GP2 drivers championship with Leimer 2nd and Nasr 3rd. Next race in the championship is in Bahrain, on 19th – 21st April. Join us then for more fascinating GP2 action right here at Driving for Pleasure.