Vandoorne takes the first in Barcelona GP2 feature race
After Nico Rosberg finally defeated his teammate and Lewis Hamilton in the battle for pole, the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit was ready for another battle, this time in GP2. Stoffel Vandoorne was aiming for the win from pole and after a long lead by Mitch Evans, managed to win again
The 37 laps long race started at 15:40 with Vandoorne on pole position. The Belgian held the lead during the majority of the race, and behind him were Pierre Gasly and Alex Lynn. Vandoorne soon pulled a big gap to 1.3s, and the collision between Julian Leal and Nick Yelloy left the latter out of the race caused a brief yellow flag period. After a slow mandatory pit stop, he lost his first place to Alex Lynn. Race leader Lynn himself went to pits giving the lead to Mitch Evans who was followed by Alexander Rossi. After going to the pits, Leal had to retire as well. The DRS wasn’t working in the beginning of the race, which proved to be a mechanical gremlin that plagued many in the later phase.
Mitch Evans held off Alexander Rossi for the majority of the race, but Vandoorne was progressing through the grid, and Alex Lynn was hunting down Pierre Gasly. After a great close pass, Gasly pushed Sergio Canamasas between himself and Lynn, and in the top part of the grid, Rossi was closing down on Evans. With many cars finally in pits, Vandoorne jumped to third. Rossi went to the pits a lap before Evans on lap 27, and returned to the race on second, while Evans lost the lead to Vandoorne, returning to the track on fourth. The battle between Vandoorne and Rossi continued while DAMS team mates Alex Lynn and Pierre Gasly had a ferocious dogfight. However, Ryo Haryanto took the best out of the situation to get between them and overtake Lynn to get to fifth.
The yellow flag went up on lap 34 for debris, but the race soon resumed with Vandoorne defending the first from Rossi who was himself threatened by Mitch Evans on third. With two laps to go, Evans overtook Rossi in Turn 1. Negrao and Chicotoo had a collision, but resumed racing, and Vandoorne managed to hold onto his lead in front of Evans, Rossi and Haryanto who managed to overtake Lynn too and get to fourth. Lynn was on fifht and Raffaele Marciello was on sixth while Pierre Gasly finished the race seventh. Norman Nato, Arthur Pic and Richie Stanaway were the last three to win the points. The sprint race is scheduled for 10:35 tomorrow and Norman Nato will lead the reversed grid and full feature race results are the following:
