Trident’s Luca Ghiotto crowned himself the tenth GP2 race winner in the 2016 season, claiming his first ever GP2 race win on Malaysian soil. Raffaele Marciello (Russian Time) did his best to take the spotlight away from his countryman, but he had to settle for second place while Prema’s Pierre Gasly made up for yesterday’s underwhelming performance by putting his car on the final podium position.
Ghiotto laid the foundation for his victory at the start of the race: He was able to snatch the lead from Mitch Evans (Campos), who had a quick start but was still slower than the Italian, and held on to the lead through the first two corners before pull away and creating a gap. Alex Lynn had an abysmal start from fifth place and his DAMS machine was pushed backwards and outside of the top ten. In contrast, fellow Brit Oliver Rowland (MP Motorsport) was able to move himself up to seventh place, having started from 12th place.
The first lap was full of battles, and there was a first casualty in the shape of Daniel de Jong, who stopped his MP Motorsport car on track. The second casualty followed suit when a Racing Engineering inter-team battle between Norman Nato and Jordan King for fourth place ended in tears: Struck by problems with the steering, the defending Brit ended up tapping his team mate into a spin, effectively ending Nato’s race and causing a safety car.
Behind Ghiotto, who had created a gap and controlled the race unchallenged from the front, Evans remained in second place until the fourth lap when Marciello made his way past the Kiwi during the re-start after the safety car period. Gustav Malja (Rapax) also put himself into the spotlight, beginning his charge towards the podium by overtaking Sergey Sirotkin (ART GP) who was struggling with a gear box problem.
Another battle shaped up in the midfield: Rowland in fifth place had to defend himself against King, while Gasly had begun to slice his way up through the field after having started from eleventh on the grid, and arrived at the back of his team mate and championship rival Antonio Giovinazzi, who was running in seventh place. The battling pair of Rowland and King allowed the Prema drivers to clatch up, turning the fight into a four way battle. Gasly was able to put pressure under Giovinazzi so that the Italian made a mistake and slided off the track, which allowed Gasly to get past his rival. Both were also able to overtake King, who had begun to struggle and would soon drop down the order, his race being aso compromised by a ten second penalty for causing the crash with Nato. Two laps later the Prema duo also made short work of Rowland to move up to sixth and seventh, respectively.
Around the halfway mark of the race, Malja had begun to increase his pace and attacked Evans for third place. The Kiwi had begun to struggle with tyre degradation but managed to defend himself well against the Swede. The battle kept raging for a few laps, which allowed Gasly and Giovinazzi to close in on the fighting pair. Eventually, Evans began to struggle badly so that Malja was able to put himself onto the final podium position, however, it was not meant to last as the Swede eventually cracked under pressure and let the Prema duo through and demote him to fifth.
After controlling the race from the lead, Ghiotto was challenged by Marciello who had waited until the last two laps for the right chance to pounce. The Russian Time man tried his best to snatch the race win from the hands of his countryman, but it was not meant to be and it was Ghiotto who crossed the finish line first. Giovinazzi too had done what he could to get past his rival in the final laps, but he too was not able to make his overtake work and had to settle for fourth place behind Gasly. Malja held onto the fifth place, while Evans nursed his car to sixth. Nobuharu Matsushita (ART GP), who had something to make up for after not finishing yesterday’s Feature race, took the two points for seventh place, and the final point for eighth was claimed by Rowland. Johnny Cecotto (Rapax) and Nicholas Latifi (DAMS) completed the top ten.
With only one round left to run, Giovinazzi sits now on top of the championship table with 197 points and an advantage of only seven points over Gasly. Raffaele Marciello is third in the standings with 158 points, followed by Sergey Sirotkin with a points tally of 135. King and Nato are in fifth and sixth place respectively with 122 points for both, with the number of second places making the difference between the duo.
