Coletti leads championship after opening round

Stefano Coletti couldn’t convert pole position for the first race of the GP2 season into victory.

Fabio Leimer beat him to the top step. But Coletti bounced back in the sprint race, taking the win and fastest lap to claim the early championship lead.

James Calado recovered from a poor start in the first race to claim second but carries a penalty into the next round of the championship following a first-lap crash in the sprint race.

After top four finishes in both races Felipe Nasr holds third in the championship points behind Leimer.

Qualifying results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1	Stefano Coletti	Rapax	1’44.280		1
2	James Calado	ART Grand Prix	1’44.284	+0.004	2
3	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	1’44.288	+0.008	3
4	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	1’44.463	+0.183	4
5	Sam Bird	Russian Time	1’44.598	+0.318	8
6	Mitch Evans	Arden International	1’44.618	+0.338	5
7	Rio Haryanto	Barwa Addax Team	1’44.681	+0.401	6
8	Rene Binder	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1’44.687	+0.407	7
9	Simon Trummer	Rapax	1’44.692	+0.412	9
10	Tom Dillmann	Russian Time	1’44.731	+0.451	10
11	Julian Leal	Racing Engineering	1’44.732	+0.452	11
12	Sergio Canamasas	Caterham Racing	1’44.761	+0.481	12
13	Marcus Ericsson	DAMS	1’44.766	+0.486	13
14	Johnny Cecotto	Arden International	1’44.788	+0.508	26
15	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	MP Motorsport	1’45.191	+0.911	14
16	Stephane Richelmi	DAMS	1’45.262	+0.982	15
17	Conor Daly	Hilmer Motorsport	1’45.289	+1.009	16
18	Nathanael Berthon	Trident Racing	1’45.378	+1.098	17
19	Kevin Ceccon	Trident Racing	1’45.491	+1.211	18
20	Ma Qinghua	Caterham Racing	1’45.497	+1.217	19
21	Daniel de Jong	MP Motorsport	1’45.522	+1.242	20
22	Daniel Abt	ART Grand Prix	1’45.593	+1.313	21
23	Jolyon Palmer	Carlin	1’45.662	+1.382	22
24	Jake Rosenzweig	Barwa Addax Team	1’45.708	+1.428	23
25	Pal Varhaug	Hilmer Motorsport	1’45.830	+1.550	24
26	Kevin Giovesi	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1’45.985	+1.705	25

Feature Race

Calado struggles and Leimer flies from the start

Calado made a poor getaway at the start and was gobbled up by the faster starting Nasr and Leimer behind. Leimer challenged Coletti for the lead into turn one but the Rapax driver held position as Calado fought his way back past Nasr.

Meanwhile Mitch Evans made a superb start on his GP2 debut, moving up to fifth and then demoting Calado as well. But at turn nine Marcus Ericsson missed his braking point and ran into Jolyon Palmer, taking himself out of the race.

The MP Motorsport pair were running near the rear of the field on the team’s debut, and it was about to get worse for them. At the end of lap four Adrian Quaife-Hobbs attempted a late lunge up the inside of his team mate Daniel de Jong into the final corner and the pair collided.

While De Jong gyrated Quaife-Hobbs attempted to go around the outside but the pair made contact again – left rear to left rear – eliminating both on the spot.

Bird and Palmer make gains

As Leimer applied pressure to Coletti up front the leader began to struggle on his tyres and eventually made his mandatory pit stop on lap six. Evans followed him in having been re-passed by Calado and Nasr. Leimer had now been released and set about posting a string of fastest laps to try and jump Coletti.

Towards the end of lap ten Calado’s team mate Daniel Abt finished early what was proving to be a miserable d?â?®but by spinning off at turn 13 completely on his own and stalling the car.

Leimer and Calado pitted together on lap 11 but despite the former’s best efforts he rejoined behind Coletti. At this point Sam Bird and Jolyon Palmer moved into the lead of the race having started on the harder tyres. The Carlin man was handed the lead however as Bird – along with a number of other drivers – received penalties for ignoring yellow flags.

Nathanael Berthon was using a similar strategy however a botched pitstop ruined his strategy. The Trident driver rejoined but pulled off the circuit later in the lap.

Coletti loses grip

Palmer eventually pitted for option tyres on lap 21 handing the lead back to Coletti, who now became embroiled in a tense duel with Leimer. As Coletti’s tyres wilted the pair fought for laps until Leimer wrested control of the lead on lap 27.

Due to Coletti’s severe lack of grip Calado also closed and completed demoted him to second a lap later.

Nasr closed quickly on Coletti but just ran out of laps to attempt a move to take the final podium place. Julian Leal finished fifth while Palmer and Bird managed sixth and seventh on their alternate strategies. Stephane Richelmi finished eighth, meaning he took pole for the sprint race, while Simon Trummer and Evans competed the points.

After the race Quaife-Hobbs was handed a twenty-five second time penalty for his collision with his team mate, despite retiring from the race. This meant he would start last on the grid for the sprint race.

Feature race results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Lap Retired	Grid
1	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	57’49.385	4
2	James Calado	ART Grand Prix	+2.045	2
3	Stefano Coletti	Rapax	+11.271	1
4	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	+12.810	3
5	Julian Leal	Racing Engineering	+28.837	11
6	Jolyon Palmer	Carlin	+34.209	22
7	Sam Bird	Russian Time	+41.183	8
8	Stephane Richelmi	DAMS	+58.941	15
9	Simon Trummer	Rapax	+1:02.853	9
10	Mitch Evans	Arden International	+1:13.730	5
11	Rene Binder	Venezuela GP Lazarus	+1:16.137	7
12	Johnny Cecotto	Arden International	+1:18.357	26*
13	Conor Daly	Hilmer Motorsport	+1:20.096	16
14	Tom Dillmann	Russian Time	+1:21.812	10
15	Pal Varhaug	Hilmer Motorsport	+1:23.754	24
16	Kevin Giovesi	Venezuela GP Lazarus	+1:35.775	25
17	Kevin Ceccon	Trident Racing	+1:37.928	18
18	Jake Rosenzweig	Barwa Addax Team	+1’43.252	23
19	Sergio Canamasas	Caterham Racing	+2:00.257	12
20	Rio Haryanto	Barwa Addax Team	+ 1 Lap	6
21	Ma Qinghua	Caterham Racing	+ 1 Lap	19
DNF	Nathanael Berthon	Trident Racing	20	17
DNF	Daniel Abt	ART Grand Prix	10	21
DNF	Daniel de Jong	MP Motorsport	4	20
DNF	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	MP Motorsport	4	14
DNF	Marcus Ericsson	DAMS	1	13

Fastest lap: Sam Bird (Russian Time) ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ 1’48.777 (lap 16)

Sprint Race

Ma Qing Hua had battled through Saturday race despite suffering acute food poisoning, but was still unwell on Sunday morning and did not take the start for the Sprint race.

Richelmi made an adequate start from pole but was attacked into turn one by Nasr and Evans. But none of them got away as well as Coletti from sixth place, whose remarkable getaway propelled him into the lead after taking the long way around the first corner.

Calado had another slow start from seventh place and as they approached turn four he clipped Leimer’s rear wheel under braking. Calado’s front wing went under the car and he tobogganed into Leal and Bird – eliminating both. The stewards held Calado responsible and handed him a ten-place grid penalty for Bahrain.

Midfield mistakes

While Coletti and Nasr made their escape Richelmi started to struggle on his tyres in third, allowing Evans to close up. With six laps to go Richelmi locked his tyres and Evans slipped through on the inside to claim the final podium spot.

Having survived his brush with Calado, Leimer was running in a strong sixth position before an error at turn 11 dropped him out of the points.

But there were no such problems for Coletti up front however as he was able to manage his tyres to claim the win ahead of Nasr. Evans took third to claim a podium in his first GP2 weekend from tenth on the grid.

Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Lap Retired	Grid
1	Stefano Coletti	Rapax	40:49.455	6
2	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	+0.832	5
3	Mitch Evans	Arden International	+8.358	10
4	Stephane Richelmi	DAMS	+11.935	1
5	Johnny Cecotto	Arden International	+15.874	12
6	Simon Trummer	Rapax	+17.072	9
7	Conor Daly	Hilmer Motorsport	+17.479	13
8	Rene Binder	Venezuela GP Lazarus	+23.726	11
9	Jolyon Palmer	Carlin	+24.326	3
10	Kevin Giovesi	Venezuela GP Lazarus	+29.020	16
11	Tom Dillmann	Russian Time	+30.522	14
12	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	+30.802	8
13	Marcus Ericsson	DAMS	+31.342	24
14	Daniel de Jong	MP Motorsport	+32.391	23
15	Sergio Canamasas	Caterham Racing	+35.336	19
16	Daniel Abt	ART Grand Prix	+36.339	22
17	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	MP Motorsport	+37.033	25*
18	Rio Haryanto	Barwa Addax Team	+43.468	20
19	Pal Varhaug	Hilmer Motorsport	+46.092	15
20	Jake Rosenzweig	Barwa Addax Team	+51.244	18
21	Nathanael Berthon	Trident Racing	+53.777	21
22	Kevin Ceccon	Trident Racing	+ 1 Lap	17
Ret	Sam Bird	Russian Time	1	2
Ret	Julian Leal	Racing Engineering	1	4
Ret	James Calado	ART Grand Prix	1	7
DNS	Ma Qinghua	Caterham Racing		DNS

Fastest lap: Stefano Coletti (Rapax) ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ 1’50.253 (on lap 5)

Drivers’ championship points

With a pole position, fastest lap, win and a third place, Coletti leads the championship from Leimer by eleven points. Rapax lead the teams standings by seven points from Racing Engineering.

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Stefano Coletti	36
2	Fabio Leimer	25
3	Felipe Nasr	24
4	James Calado	18
5	Stephane Richelmi	12
6	Mitch Evans	11
7	Julian Leal	10
8	Jolyon Palmer	8
9	Sam Bird	8
10	Johnny Cecotto	6
11	Simon Trummer	6
12	Conor Daly	2
13	Rene Binder	1

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