An excellent weekend for Vandoorne will see him leave the weekend as the highest placed points scorer. But many of his expected rivals struggled and will be on the back foot in the title fight.
Practice
Racing Engineering were the first to show their pace during the weekend, with Jordan King taking top spot and Rossi 0.01 seconds behind. While DAMS did show us early pace, this would end up being a highlight to their weekend. Vandoorne had stopped on track with mechanical problems, so the ART Grand Prix driver went in on the back foot.
|
POS
|
NO
|
DRIVERS
|
TEAMS
|
LAPS
|
TIME
|
GAP
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
7
|
J. King
|
Racing Engineering
|
17
|
1:42.441
|
|
|
2
|
8
|
A. Rossi
|
Racing Engineering
|
20
|
1:42.451
|
0.010
|
|
3
|
2
|
A. Lynn
|
DAMS
|
18
|
1:42.509
|
0.068
|
|
4
|
5
|
S. Vandoorne
|
ART Grand Prix
|
14
|
1:42.612
|
0.171
|
|
5
|
14
|
A. Pic
|
Campos Racing
|
16
|
1:42.948
|
0.507
|
|
6
|
15
|
R. Haryanto
|
Campos Racing
|
16
|
1:43.043
|
0.602
|
|
7
|
1
|
P. Gasly
|
DAMS
|
18
|
1:43.249
|
0.808
|
|
8
|
9
|
M. Evans
|
RUSSIAN TIME
|
16
|
1:43.327
|
0.886
|
Qualifying
Despite his set back during practice, Vandoorne bounced back in fine form to take from Honda prodegee Matsushita. Lynn proved to be their closest competitor. While Pic continued his consistant form. The drivers were on form in the cooler night time conditions, with most personal bests being set towards the end on new rubber. Lynn was the stand out performer, while Racing Engineering seemed to still be in a good position.
|
POS
|
NO
|
DRIVERS
|
TEAMS
|
LAPS
|
TIME
|
GAP
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
5
|
S. Vandoorne
|
ART Grand Prix
|
11
|
1:39.237
|
|
|
2
|
6
|
N. Matsushita
|
ART Grand Prix
|
11
|
1:39.545
|
0.308
|
|
3
|
2
|
A. Lynn
|
DAMS
|
11
|
1:39.599
|
0.362
|
|
4
|
14
|
A. Pic
|
Campos Racing
|
11
|
1:39.630
|
0.393
|
|
5
|
11
|
R. Marciello
|
Trident
|
8
|
1:39.645
|
0.408
|
|
6
|
7
|
J. King
|
Racing Engineering
|
11
|
1:39.770
|
0.533
|
|
7
|
21
|
N. Nato
|
Arden International
|
11
|
1:39.857
|
0.620
|
|
8
|
8
|
A. Rossi
|
Racing Engineering
|
12
|
1:39.872
|
0.635
|
Feature Race
A close fought Race saw Matsushita make a poor start. The race livened up after an accident between Marciello, Nato, Pic and Gasly while battling for 3rd. As the Safety Car came out, many stayed out, however a few, including Evans, Rossi, King and Lynn pitted for new tyres.
Rossi lead the group as the 2 leaders of Vandoorne and Haryanto pushed in order to get a gap over the others. Lynn and Evans appeared to push their tyres too hard and fell off the pace as it became a Racing Engineering 1-2 after everyone had pitted.
However; an excellent drive from Vandoorne saw him close Rossi down by 3 seconds a lap. Catching him with 3 to go. Haryanto also moved through the order taking 2nd in the final corner.
After the race, Vandoorne told 'GP2series.com "It’s been a really good start to my campaign with pole, win and fastest lap. It could not have gone any better."
|
POS
|
NO
|
DRIVERS
|
TEAMS
|
LAPS
|
TIME
|
GAP
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
5
|
S. Vandoorne
|
ART Grand Prix
|
32
|
1:01:23.306
|
|
|
2
|
15
|
R. Haryanto
|
Campos Racing
|
32
|
1:01:28.362
|
5.056
|
|
3
|
8
|
A. Rossi
|
Racing Engineering
|
32
|
1:01:28.803
|
5.497
|
|
4
|
7
|
J. King
|
Racing Engineering
|
32
|
1:01:35.628
|
12.322
|
|
5
|
19
|
R. Visoiu
|
Rapax
|
32
|
1:01:43.354
|
20.048
|
|
6
|
9
|
M. Evans
|
RUSSIAN TIME
|
32
|
1:01:48.849
|
25.543
|
|
7
|
26
|
N. Berthon
|
Lazarus
|
32
|
1:01:51.035
|
27.729
|
|
8
|
3
|
J. Leal
|
Carlin
|
32
|
1:01:51.769
|
28.463
|
|
9
|
20
|
A. Negrão
|
Arden International
|
32
|
1:01:52.808
|
29.502
|
|
10
|
6
|
N. Matsushita
|
ART Grand Prix
|
32
|
1:01:52.970
|
29.664
|
Sprint Race
An excellent start for Evans saw him challenge Leal for the Lead into turn 1. Leal built a lead as Evans was challenged by Haryanto behind. As Evans' tyres wore down he became vunerable to the cars behind. Haryanto took second and then the lead as Leal had his own issues.
Rio Haryanto built up a large gap as the ART Grand Prix drivers started moving through the order along with Rossi. Meanwhile there was a crash between King and Canamasas.
Leal and Visoiu hit a cliff and fell down as Matsushita took 2nd, however Vandoorne was the driver on the move and soon overtook his team mate. While Berthon also made places past Matsushita and Rossi.
|
POS
|
NO
|
DRIVERS
|
TEAMS
|
LAPS
|
TIME
|
GAP
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
15
|
R. Haryanto
|
Campos Racing
|
23
|
41:35.490
|
|
|
2
|
5
|
S. Vandoorne
|
ART Grand Prix
|
23
|
41:38.494
|
3.004
|
|
3
|
26
|
N. Berthon
|
Lazarus
|
23
|
41:41.129
|
5.639
|
|
4
|
8
|
A. Rossi
|
Racing Engineering
|
23
|
41:41.748
|
6.258
|
|
5
|
3
|
J. Leal
|
Carlin
|
23
|
41:49.435
|
13.945
|
|
6
|
6
|
N. Matsushita
|
ART Grand Prix
|
23
|
41:51.413
|
15.923
|
|
7
|
19
|
R. Visoiu
|
Rapax
|
23
|
41:55.284
|
19.794
|
|
8
|
20
|
A. Negrão
|
Arden International
|
23
|
41:55.649
|
20.159
|
Conclusions
So at the end of the weekend Vadoorne leaves with the championship lead, but we've been left with a lot of questions. One of the main concerns for people will be the poor performance of many of the championship favourites. Lynn, Gasly, Pic, Marciello, Evans all failed to score. So for them is it all over, or can they still catch up?
-|RacingRecaps|-
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