Copyright GP2 Media Services
After a podium finish in the Feature race, Rio Haryanto takes home another piece of silverware after dominating the Sprint race in Bahrain. Yesterday’s race winner Stoffel Vandoorne finished in second place ahead of Nathanael Berthon, who managed to recover well from a slow start.
Once again, the race took place in very hot temperatures and tyre management was again a crucial factor.
Julian Leal, promoted to reverse grid pole position due to Nobuharu Matsushita’s penalty, had a quick start off the line but came under pressure from Mitch Evans through the first corner. Nathanael Berthon on the other hand dropped back quickly from the front row. Rio Haryanto laid the foundation for his good performance at the start, dashing up to third place from seventh on the grid.
Battles were raging all over the place in the early stage of the race: Leal and Evans fought for the lead with Haryanto waiting behind them for his chance to pounce. Further back in the midfield, Racing Engineering team mates Alexander Rossi and Jordan King were locked in a battle of the own that saw King lose out and the Brit tumbled down the order. Rene Binder was the first casualty of the race, retiring after the third lap. Shortly afterwards, King also came together with Sergio Canamasas. While the Racing Engineering man was able to continue, the race of the Trident driver was over with a damaged front wing and suspension.
Meanwhile, Haryanto had taken the lead from Leal who had started to struggle on his tyres, and the Indonesian was able to lead from the front unchallenged. Behind him, a four way battle between Leal, Evans, Visoiu, and Matsushita shaped up: Leal was able to hold on to P2 despite constant attacks from Evans, who in turn came under pressure from Visoiu and Matsushita who had caught up with the squabbling pair. Eventually there was contact between Leal and Evans in the heat of the battle. Leal dropped down the order but was able to continue despite damage to his car, and Evans was forced to return to the pit lane and put on a fresh set of rubber due to a punctured tyre.
Visoiu, now in second place, soon came under pressure from ART. Matsushita behind him and Stoffel Vandoorne, who had climbed up to fourth place, showed the same fast pace as in yesterday’s Feature race, and the Japanese ART driver soon overtook his rival to chase down Haryanto in the lead, followed by Vandoorne. Haryanto seemed slower than the ART cars at first, but in the closing laps it turned out he had only managed his tyres. Vandoorne pushed for the win in the last laps, overtaking his team mate to go for Haryanto, but the Indonesian had enough life left in his tyres to hold on to the lead with a gap of three seconds at the chequered flag.
Behind the pair, there was action until the last lap: Both Visoiu and Matsushita had begun to struggle with their tyres in the last laps of the race, allowing Alexander Rossi and Nathanael Berthon through. The Frenchman had recovered well from his slow start and conserved his tyres well during the race to be able to attack in the closing stage: this strategy paid off as he was able to close in on Rossi soon and over took the American for the final podium position. Leal managed to hold off Visoiu and Matsushita for fifth place, and the last point for eighth place went to Andre Negrao after fending off the efforts of Jordan King.
The next round of GP2 will take place at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain in three weeks.
