Mitch Evans has completed one of his most impressive weekends in his GP2 Series career as he took the lead from Arthur Pic on the final lap of the 21-lap Sprint Race. Stoffel Vandoorne finished third as he and Evans secured double podium finishes.
Starting on the front row, Pic took advantage of a slow starting Jordan King and jumped into the lead of the race, leaving King to limit the damage caused by his slow getaway. The Racing Engineering driver then locked up into the Turn 1 chicane, running into Norman Nato’s Arden who had jumped to third, causing both drivers to retire from the race.
Pic then built a two-second gap from Richie Stanaway who was promoted to second from the Turn One accident. Stanaway’s Status machine didn’t have the pace to run with the front-runners as he was passed by Evans on lap six, then Vandoorne on Lap 7.
While on the seventh lap of the race, the safety car made its second appearance of the weekend after there was a collision between Robert Visoiu and Alexander Rossi.
Rossi had been travelling in eighth after enduring a poor start and was making his way back through the field, as he passed Visoiu for eighth position on the run towards the second chicane, Visoiu out-braked himself fighting to regain his position and spun Rossi around, ending the race for both drivers.
The safety car period lasted two laps and racing resumed on lap nine where Pic was forced to defend from a hounding Evans after enjoying a second gap between them prior the safety car interruption.
Sergey Sirotkin started the race in 20th position after retiring from yesterday’s Feature Race, and by the halfway mark of the race, was already up into the top ten after a brilliant double pass on Raffaele Marciello and Rio Haryanto on the main straight.
Sergio Canamasas was running in fifth position until his Lazarus experiences brake issues, very similar to Pic’s problems yesterday. He was left to defend from René Binder, which he did successfully until Sirotkin passed both drivers on the penultimate lap to secure fifth position.
2015 GP2 Series Italy – Sprint Race Final Classification (21 laps) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Driver | Team / Entry | Laps | Result | |||
1. | Mitch Evans | ![]() |
Russian Time | 21 | 34:17.890 | |
2. | Arthur Pic | ![]() |
Campos Racing | 21 | + 0.707 | |
3. | Stoffel Vandoorne | ![]() |
ART Grand Prix | 21 | + 1.066 | |
4. | Richie Stanaway | ![]() |
Status Grand Prix | 21 | + 7.623 | |
5. | Sergey Sirotkin | ![]() |
Rapax | 21 | + 8.871 | |
6. | Sergio Canamasas | ![]() |
Daiko Team Lazarus | 21 | + 11.895 | |
7. | Raffaele Marciello | ![]() |
Trident | 21 | + 12.150 | |
8. | Rene Binder | ![]() |
MP Motorsport | 21 | + 13.241 | |
9. | Artem Markelov | ![]() |
Russian Time | 21 | + 13.625 | |
10. | Julián Leal | ![]() |
Carlin | 21 | + 14.352 | |
11. | Alex Lynn | ![]() |
DAMS | 21 | + 14.502 | |
12. | Rio Haryanto | ![]() |
Campos Racing | 21 | + 15.250 | |
13. | Pierre Gasly | ![]() |
DAMS | 21 | + 15.672 | |
14. | Johnny Cecotto Jr | ![]() |
Trident | 21 | + 17.686 | |
15. | Nobuharu Matsushita | ![]() |
ART Grand Prix | 21 | + 22.464 | |
16. | Simon Trummer | ![]() |
Hilmer Motorsport | 21 | + 23.094 | |
17. | Patric Niederhauser | ![]() |
Daiko Team Lazarus | 21 | + 25.186 | |
18. | André Negrão | ![]() |
Arden International | 21 | + 25.570 | |
19. | Marlon Stöckinger | ![]() |
Status Grand Prix | 21 | + 26.288 | |
20. | Jann Mardenborough | ![]() |
Carlin | 21 | + 35.277 | |
Not Classified | Team / Entry | Laps | Result | |||
DNF. | Robert Vișoiu | ![]() |
Rapax | 6 | Collision | |
DNF. | Alexander Rossi | ![]() |
Racing Engineering | 6 | Collision | |
DNF. | Jordan King | ![]() |
Racing Engineering | 1 | Collision | |
DNF. | Norman Nato^ | ![]() |
Arden International | 0 | Collision | |
DNS. | Meindert van Buuren | ![]() |
MP Motorsport |
Images via GP2 Series Media
Josh Kruse
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