GP2 Bahrain

The highly anticipated and long awaited first GP2 race of the year took place in the Bahrain sunshine today. Jolyon Palmer qualified on pole position with Stoffel Vandoorne in second place and Daniel Abt in third. Felipe Nasr was demoted three places having been handed a post-qualifying penalty.

Simon Trummer stalled before the formation lap and began his third GP2 season from the pit-lane. The five red lights went out and Palmer fell to P6 and Abt fell further to P10, while Vandoorne stayed cool to take the race lead ahead of Stéphane Richelmi, Stefano Coletti, Mitch Evans and Rio Haryanto.

Facu Regalia had a poor debut as he made contact with Johnny Cecotto which broke the Argentine driver's front left suspension. Axcil Jefferies also had a bad debut when, defending his line, Kimiya Sato made contact with the rear of the Trident driver's car and pushed him towards the barrier and into a huge crash. The safety car was deployed and Sato received a stop/go penalty.

Following a short safety car period, drivers saw the opportunity to pit early and get the prime tyres strapped to their wagons. Incredible work by the Caterham mechanics saw both Haryanto and Alexander Rossi stop in very quick succession. Palmer jumped three drivers in his stop to jump to a de facto podium place.

Cecotto was deemed to have exploited track limits when overtaking Arthur Pic at turn seven and he was handed a drive through penalty by the race stewards. Raffaele Marciello also served a drive through after speeding in the pit-lane.
Simon Trummer stayed out for 29 of the 32 laps on prime tyres and reaped the benefits of running just the last laps on option tyres. The Swiss driver, who started from the pit-lane, gained three places in the last two laps to end the race seventh and ensured a front row start for the Sprint Race.

Arthur Pic and Takuya Izawa were both quick to understand the Pirelli tyres on their debuts. Pic found extra pace in the last few laps when others were faltering and forced his way to finish P5 while Izawa ended the race one position behind the Frenchman. Incredible driving by the Japanese debutante having started P23.
Stoffel Vandoorne's debut was a thing of a fairy tale as the Belgian was untouchable throughout the race and after the 23 laps the Belgian won. Julián Leal brought his Carlin home just 1.5 seconds behind Vandoorne and Jolyon Palmer seemed a little disappointed to finish only third on the podium after starting on pole position.

Position
1 S. Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 59:57.411
2 J. Leal Carlin 1.551
3 J. Palmer DAMS 5.880
4 S. Coletti Racing Engineering 6.317
5 A. Pic Campos Racing 15.100
6 T. Izawa ART Grand Prix 21.729
7 S. Trummer Rapax 21.979
8 F. Nasr Carlin 24.425
9 R. Binder Arden International 24.861
10 A. Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 26.194
11 D. De Jong MP Motorsport 27.034
12 C. Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 31.931
13 D. Abt Hilmer Motorsport 36.231
14 M. Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME 36.997
15 A. Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME 41.030
16 R. Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing 41.714
17 J. Lancaster MP Motorsport 42.412
18 R. Marciello Racing Engineering 46.849
19 S. Richelmi DAMS 49.656
20 A. Negrão Arden International 62.346
21 J. Cecotto Trident 73.454
22 A. Rossi EQ8 Caterham Racing 94.560
23 N. Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus DNF
24 K. Sato Campos Racing DNF
25 A. Jefferies Trident DNF
26 F. Regalia Hilmer Motorsport DNF

Callum Rowe
Editor & Sole Contributor, Callum Rowe’s GP2 Blog
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