Alexander Rossi claimed the sprint race victory in a shortened GP2 Feature race, followed by Pierre Gasly and Stoffel Vandoorne.
It was a race against the setting sun in Russia as two crashes in the first lap interrupted the race. Local hero Artem Markelov ran wide and clipped the wall in turn 13. The Russian then slid across the track and collected both Marlon Stockinger and Sergio Canamasas as well before coming to a halt in the barriers. The other incident was caused by Jordan King: The Racing Engineering man had hit the back of Stockinger during the start and, losing all grip with his damaged front wing, ended his race with a heavy impact in the barriers. Thankfully all drivers walked away unharmed, but the massive damage to the barriers meant that the race needed to be red-flagged to carry out necessary repairs.
When the race was restarted, the sun was already setting and it was decided that the race distance would be shortened to 15 laps. Just like in the first start, it was Alex Lynn who pulled away quickly from the lead, while Rossi and Gasly battled for second place. Vandoorne had already lost positions during the restart and had dropped down further to fifth place behind Arthur Pic.
When the pit stop window opened, Lynn was the first man to dash into the pits, followed suit one lap later by team mate Pierre Gasly, with Lynn retaining the de facto lead of the race as the French rookie rejoined the race track just behind him. Rossi made his stop in the lap afterwards, and while he was able to overtake Lynn in the pits, he only stayed ahead for a few corners as the Brit on warmer tyres made short work of him.
Again, Lynn began to pull away while Rossi struggled to keep the faster Gasly behind him on his colder tyres. Ahead of the drivers who had done their stops already, it was Vandoorne who ran in P1 after Arthur Pic had made a mistake and allowed the Belgian to slip through. Vandoorne made use of the clean air, pushing and creating a gap to Lynn for a late pit stop.
With only 5 laps left to run, Lynn’s luck changed swiftly. The so far unchallenged Brit ran wide through Turn 13 and clipped the barriers at the same spot as Markelov in the first lap, effectively ending his race.
Thus, Rossi gained the lead of the race as Vandoorne emerged from the pits behind him and Gasly. The American held onto the lead despite coming under pressure by the DAMS driver behind him, and claimed his second consecutive Feature race win. Stoffel Vandoorne finished in third place and also claimed the points for the fastest lap. Sergey Sirotkin finished the race in front of his home crowd in fourth place ahead of Rio Haryanto, Raffaele Marciello, and Richie Stanaway. Arthur Pic finished the race in eighth place and will start tomorrow’s sprint race on pole position, and debutant Dean Stoneman as well as Mitch Evans complete the top ten.
