Mitch Evans snatched the race sprint race win from Arthur Pic in the last lap to finish on the podium for a second time this weekend. Pic held on to second place after a strong drive to cross the finish line ahead of championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne.
The GP2 sprint race took place under a blazing blue sky in Monza, and it was every bit as thrilling as the feature race the day before. Once again, all hell broke loose in the first laps: While Arthur Pic had a dashing fast start from second place and was the first one through the Variante di Rettifilo, pole sitter Jordan King was less lucky: The Brit lost out not only to Pic but also Norman Nato, and the two made contact in the first corner. King was able to limp back to the pits with a broken front wing but had to retire eventually, while Nato’s race was over just a few hundred metres later when his engine broke down.
After the first lap chaos had dissolved, Pic was able to quickly create a gap over second-placed Richie Stanaway and managed the race on the front unchallenged. Stanaway behind him began to struggle soon, which allowed Mitch Evans and Stoffel Vandoorne to close in on him. Evans made short work of his countryman on lap three, and Vandoorne followed suit two laps later.
It was not long until all hell broke loose again: In lap 7, the safety car had to make an appearance after Robert Visoiu and Alexander Rossi came together in a fierce battle for the last point. Visoiu misjudged his braking point and tapped Rossi into a spin, which left both cars stranded on the track.
The safety car played into the hands of the DAMS Racing drivers: Both Pierre Gasly and Alex Lynn were charging through the midfield after having started in the pit lane due to penalties, and after the safety car phase had bunched up the field again, both were able to slice through the field in the course of the race to finish just outside of the top ten.
When the track went live again, a battle shaped up at the end of the top ten: Markelov in seventh place came under pressure from Julian Leal, while behind them Sergey Sirotkin had overtaken Rio Haryanto for ninth place and began to close in on Leal. The Russian was on fire today: Having started in 20th place after an accident in the feature race, he made a mad dash through the field and eventually finished the race well inside the points.
Back at the front, Pic was still controlling the race unchallenged ahead of Evans and Vandoorne. Behind the top three, Stanaway had settled down in provisional fourth place ahead of Sergio Canamasas and Rene Binder. Towards the end of the race a battle shaped up between the latter two: Binder began to put pressure on Canamansas and attacked, but was not able to make the move work until he eventually came under pressure himself from the charging Sirotkin and was overtaken by both him and former teammate Raffaele Marciello in the last lap.
Meanwhile, Pic seemed to have wrapped up the win already, with Evans and Vandoorne close but in safe distance. That is until Evans began to push in the dying minutes and closed the gap to the leading Frenchman, overtaking him in the very last lap to claim his first victory of the season.
Pic came under pressure from Vandoorne as well but was able to hold on to second place to finish ahead of the Belgian. Richie Stanaway saw the checkered flag in fourth place ahead of Sergey Sirotkin, who had made short work of Canamasas in the last laps. Behind them, Raffaele Marciello had also pushed past former teammate Rene Binder to finish in seventh place, and the Austrian claimed the last point for eighth place. Artem Markelov and Julian Leal complete the top ten.
