Copyright GP2 Media Services
Stoffel Vandoorne put it all together to take the win in the first GP2 race of 2015 with a great strategy. Rio Haryanto followed the Belgian in second place, and Alexander Rossi had to settle for third after leading through the last stage of the race.
The race took place under clear blue skies, in scorching hot conditions and on a dirty, sandy track which made tyre management and strategy a crucial factor in the race.
As the lights went out, Stoffel Vandoorne had a quick start from pole position and kept the lead through the first corners one second ahead of Alex Lynn in second place, while his team mate Nobuharu Matsushita was not able to get away immediately and dropped down the order to 14th place from the front row. Norman Nato made a lighting dash around the outside from seventh place on the grid which brought the Frenchman up to third ahead of Raffaele Marciello, while behind them Pierre Gasly and Arthur Pic were locked in a battle for fifth place.
The start was clean without major incidents, however, the safety car had to make its first appearance early: On lap 3 a battle had shaped up between Nato, Marciello, and Arthur Pic and it ended in tears for all three as Nato defended too eagerly, hitting first Pic and then Marciello so that all three cars spun off the track. Gasly was caught up in the accident as well, hitting Pic’s spinning car with no way to avoid it, and the race was over for all four drivers.
Alexander Rossi and Alex Lynn used the safety car for their mandatory stop to change from soft tyre to medium and sliced through the field from behind, while Vandoorne, who had started on the medium compound, was forced to stay out in the lead of the race ahead of Rio Haryanto, Julian Leal, and Matsushita who had recovered from his start thanks to the accident and drivers making their pit stops.
At the restart in lap 9, Vandoorne was attacked by Haryanto but the Belgian could hold on to the lead, while Leal, Matsushita and Robert Visoiu battled for third place. Further back on the grid in P13 and 14, Rossi and Lynn made contact during the restart, damaging the DAMS driver’s front wing. Rossi was able to pull away and get both Mitch Evans and Richie Stanaway between himself and his rival and started to close the gap to the leading Vandoorne. Lynn was caught up in a battle against Evans while Rossi managed to overtake the drivers on older tyres ahead of him easily.
Around the halfway mark, Rossi had already moved up to P6 and kept the gap to Vandoorne low enough that the Belgian could not make his stop without losing the lead of the race to the American. Meanwhile, Lynn on the same strategy as Rossi was less successful: Stuck behind slower cars and still locked in battles, his tyres were dropping of rapidly and the DAMS driver had to fight tooth and nail to keep his position.
Vandoorne pitted eventually from the lead with ten laps to go, followed suit by Rio Haryanto one lap later. Rossi took over the race lead shortly afterwards and controlled the race from the front, saving his tyres while Vandoorne lost a few seconds in a slow stop and rejoined the race in the midfield. However, on new soft tyres the Belgian lapped almost three seconds faster than everyone ahead of him, and he sliced through the field easily with Haryanto hot on his heels while Rossi tried his best to manage his tyres at the front.
Behind Rossi, a battle for second place raged between Mitch Evans, Andre Negrao, and Jordan King, which allowed Vandoorne to catch up even faster as all three lost time and destroyed their tyres in the process. With five laps to go the ART GP driver had gotten past all three of them and began to chase down Rossi while Haryanto made his way past the battling triple as well, lapping at an even faster pace than the Belgian ahead.
With laptimes three seconds faster than the race leader, it was only a question of time until Vandoorne had caught up to the top. Rossi had to concede with two laps left to run and Vandoorne retook the lead, cruising to victory unchallenged. Rio Haryanto followed the Belgian home in second place, having overtaken the much slower Rossi in the last corner. Jordan King crossed the line in fourth place ahead of Robert Visoiu, Nobuharu Matsushita, Mitch Evans, Nathanael Berthon, Julian Leal, and Andre Negrao. However, both Visoiu and Matsushita received five second penalties for erratic driving, which drops Matsushita down to tenth place in the final classification, promoting Julian Leal to eighth place and tomorrow’s reverse grid pole position.
Tomorrow’s sprint race will start at 14:15 local time (GMt+3).
