» GP2: Evans wins electrifying Sprint Race at Monza

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.

Evans celebrates victory.

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