GP2: Vandoorne finally wins his first GP2 race at Spa

After failing to win at his homeland track in the previous seasons, Stoffel Vandoorne finally won a GP2 race at Spa-Francorchamps. The race started with Vandoorne on pole and Oliver Rowland behind him. After making a bad start, Vandoorne was overtaken by Sergey Sirotkin, but returned to the lead quickly, following the collision between Nobuharu Matsushita and Oliver Rowland. Fellow Britons Alex Lynn and Jordan King battled hard and Mitch Evans got the upper hand by making a bold overtaking move at Eau Rouge, overtaking them both and climbing to fourth. Evans didn’t stop there and started attacking Sirotkin, eventually overtaking him on lap 5. One lap later, safety car was deployed when Daniel De Jong lost control and violently hit the tire barrier while trying to overtake Pierre Gasly. On lap seven, race leader Vandoorne pitted for tire change, as well as Haryanto, Leal and Markelov. Alexander Rossi was the new leader after deciding to make the stop later. On lap 9, the race was red flagged and cars headed to the pits while race marshals were rebuilding the barrier.

After more than half an hour, the race restarted under the safety car. As the race went green, Evans immediately started attacking Rossi for the lead. On lap 11, after hitting Nick Yelloly, Matsushita lost his front wing again, leaving debris all over his track. By lap 15, Vandoorne went up two spots, from eighth to sixth. After Rossi pitted, Sergey Sirotkin went to the lead as the only driver who still didn’t visit the pits. On lap 20, the Russian did so, enabling Vandoorne to return to the lead with five laps to go. Rio Haryanto and Andre Negrao were issued 10 second penalties. With over 8 second in front of Arthur Pic, Stoffel Vandoorne won the Belgian GP2 feature race. Artem Markelov managed to hold off Julian Leal and finished the race on third. In the last corner, Mitch Evans overtook Alexander Rossi for fifth, making contact with him in the process. The incident was inspected immediately, but Evans kept his fifth position. Berthon finished the race seventh, and on eighth was Jordan King. The last two in the top ten were Sergey Sirotkin and Marlon Stockinger. However, what was the most important was the fact that Daniel De Jong was good.
The more detailed results can be seen here: