GP2 Bahrain

On Saturday, Racing Engineering's Fabio Leimer put himself on pole position with an amazing lap, out qualifying 2nd placed Marcus Ericsson by one second. Felipe Nasr was 3rd and Stefano Coletti was 4th. Drivers knew it would be difficult againts Leimer if he kept up with a similar pace during the race.

Race 1: Feature Race

The drama started before the race was underway as front row starter Ericsson stalled his car on the grid as the warm up lap began. The Swede lost a great starting position and was forced to start from the pitlane.

Leimer took the lead from pole position, while Nasr had problems with his start from 3rd and dropped to 4th. Coletti took 2nd and Sam Bird took 3rd place after a very impressive start from 9th position and he was flying through the field. Another great starter was Nasr's team mate Jolyon Palmer with Carlin who put himself up to 6th after starting from 12th and later got the 5th place as he passed Alexander Rossi.

The race was over for Daniel De Jong too early as the Dutch driver came to the pitlane with a slow car and stopped it there. There was lots of action after the start and the stewards got their first investigation as Sergio Canamasas pushed James Calado off the track, Canamasas was later punished with a drive through penalty.

Soft tyres started to loose grip quickly and Alexander Rossi was the first man to make his pitstop.
Other drivers stops soon followed in the following couple of laps. Sam Bird and Felipe Nasr were fighting closely for the 3rd place, and both came into the pits on the same lap. Both lost a bit of time in the pits and dropped behind Rossi and Palmer who had stopped earlier and rejoined the race in the same order – Bird in front and Nasr behind Palmer Meanwhile Quaife-Hobbs was leading the race as he hadn't made his pitstop yet, followed by Julian Leal and Tom Dillmann. Nasr soon got past Bird after their pitstops.

As the race went on, the order became settled as all drivers made their pitstops. It didn't go well for Leal, his stop seemed to go well, but he was delayed as the front left tyre wasn't attached properly. He wasn't the only one with problems as Mitch Evans almost took a jack with him. James Calado meanwhile lost time as there were problems attaching his right rear tyre.

There was contact on the track as Robert Frjins and Stephane Richelmi collided on track and left some debris which caused a yellow flag. Richelmi had to retire after the contact and Frjins dropped to last place.

Rene Binder, Mitch Evans and Kevin Giovesi were fighting hard for positions, and Giovesi ended up pushing Evans off the track. Giovesi was punished with a drive through penalty, but it didn't give much joy for Evans who was out of the race with a technical problem.

As the race neared the end, Nasr got past his team mate Palmer and was closing on Alexander Rossi's 3rd place on the last lap. Leimer won the race, Coletti was second and Rossi 3rd with Nasr 4th just 0,4 seconds behind. Palmer finished 5th behind his team mate, followed by Bird, Quaife-Hobbs, Dillmann, Trummer and Cecotto. It was an extraordinary finish and one of the closest in GP2.

Race 2: Sprint Race

In the sprint race it was Tom Dillmann who started from pole position as he finished the feature race in 8th position. Quaife-Hobbs started from 2nd, and Dillmann's team mate Bird from 3rd. The Carlin double Palmer and Nasr started from 4th and 5th, with the feature race's top 3 behind them: Rossi 6th, Coletti 7th and Leimer 8th.

Action started immediately in the first corner as there was lots of contacts amongst the mid-fielders. The most noticeable contact was between Rio Hariyanto and Marcus Ericsson with Hariyanto smashing into Ericsson's rear. The Swede's bad luck continued and he had to retire because the car was undriveable.
Fabio Leimer also got some damage to his car as he got a hit on the left side by Alexander Rossi's Caterham.

At the start Dillmann lead, but soon got passed by his team mate Sam Bird. It wasn't easy for Dillmann as Stefano Coletti soon made the same move. Felipe Nasr had passed Quaife-Hobbs for 4th and Nasr also made the move on Dillmann. The pole starter soon found himself in 4th place and the top 3 Bird, Coletti and Nasr started to pull away, a couple of laps later the leader Bird drove over debris left on the first corner, but survived without any damage or punctures. A brave marshall soon took the debris away from the track to ensure safety.

The top 3 pulled away from others and Dillmann managed to keep his 4th place and to make a bit of gap to Quaife-Hobbs. In the middle of the field there was a close battle between four drivers as Canamasas, Ceccon, Rosenzweig and Abt fought for position.With laps running out, the drivers started to struggle with tyres and positions were changed in the top 10. Jolyon Palmer got past the championship leader Leimer and started to chase Quaife-Hobbs' 5th place. Leimer was really struggling as soon both ART drivers James Calado and Daniel Abt got past him too. Calado got past the Carlin driver Palmer, and the whole trio Calado, Palmer and Abt caught and past Quaife-Hobbs.

Coletti and Nasr started to chase Bird who was losing pace. Coletti's tyres weren't in good shape though – the Rapax driver had a big lock up coming into the last corner with just 2 laps to go and went wide, which gave Nasr the chance to take 2nd place. Nasr started to get really close to Bird and Coletti continued to struggle and went wide on several corners. Nasr was right behind Bird coming into the last few corners and he had to get past on the last corner, but couldn't make the move. The Brazilian though got a good exit from the last corner and there was literally no gap between the top 2. Nasr moved beside Bird just before the finish line, but it wasn't enough – the gap between the winner Bird and Nasr was only 0,080 seconds! It is the closest ever finish in GP2 history. Coletti managed to keep his 3rd place even though his struggle with tyres was huge. Dillmann finished 4th, Calado 5th, Palmer 6th, Abt 7th and Quaife-Hobbs 8th. Fabio Leimer was left without points on 9th place.

After Bahrain, Coletti took the drivers championship lead with 64 points. Leimer dropped to 2nd place and Nasr remains in 3rd place.

It was another fantastic weekend of GP2 racing in Bahrain, this series continues to deliver scintillating races supporting Formula 1. We return to Europe after a 3 week break to Barcelona.

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