GP2 Feature Race

Sunny skies and hot weather conditions graced the start of the delayed GP2 Feature Race. 28°C was the air temperature while the track temperature was sky high at 48°C.

Pole sitter Stéphane Richelmi stalled when an aborted start occurred and Facu Regalia & the ART Grand Prix drivers of Stoffel Vandoorne and Takuya Izawa suffered the same bad fortune. The second race start saw Stefano Coletti challenge Jolyon Palmer and Mitch Evans for the race lead but the Monegasque driver collided with the pair of his rivals, suffered a puncture and spun.

Daniel Abt, Facu Regalia and Lello Marciello came together at turn ten and all three men retired; making an incredibly bad start to the race for Racing Engineering and Hilmer Motorsport. Nat Berthon retired in the pits early on due to a catastrophic brake failure. The biggest winner off the race start was Artem Markelov who shot up into the points paying positions having started in P25.

Palmer, Nasr and Sato jumped to the pit lane as soon as the pit stop window opened on lap six. Leal came in on the next lap but a dodgy wheel nut caused the Colombian to lose out.

Tom Dillmann stayed out on the prime tyres and looked to be a challenger for the lead but the Frenchman was forced into the pits to have a loose engine cover bolted back on.

Alexander Rossi suffered an engine failure while battling with his team mate which stopped the Caterham driver from getting his points tally off the ground. de Jong was the final driver to have a car problem as the Dutchman's left-rear wheel came loose and later detached.

Johnny Cecotto's brave move to start on the prime tyres paid off when , after pitting, he came out just behind Palmer. The Venezuelan quickly moved ahead of the DAMS driver and stormed off towards victory. Eight laps later the checkered flag fell for Johnny Cecotto to seal his first victory in the Series since Germany 2012.

Jolyon Palmer held off a valiant attack from Felipe Nasr to finish second and Julián Leal continued his run of high points finishes with fourth place for Carlin.

Position Driver Team Gap

1 J. Cecotto Trident 1:00:28.853
2 J. Palmer DAMS 3.409
3 F. Nasr Carlin 3.750
4 J. Leal Carlin 6.128
5 R. Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing 15.895
6 A. Pic Campos Racing 16.842
7 R. Binder Arden International 17.682
8 T. Ellinas MP Motorsport 18.407
9 T. Dillmann Arden International 20.565
10 A. Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 21.265
11 S. Richelmi DAMS 21.460
12 S. Coletti Racing Engineering 21.847
13 A. Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME 22.233
14 S. Trummer Rapax 22.804
15 S. Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 23.397
16 M. Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME 23.630
17 C. Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 25.415
18 S. Canamasas Trident 42.769
19 K. Sato Campos Racing 48.653
20 T. Izawa ART Grand Prix 52.965
21 D. De Jong MP Motorsport DNF
22 A. Rossi EQ8 Caterham Racing DNF
23 N. Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus DNF
24 D. Abt Hilmer Motorsport DNF
25 R. Marciello Racing Engineering DNF
26 F. Regalia Hilmer Motorsport DNF

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

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