Markelov scores first win in GP2 Series

Artem Markelov is the winner of the GP2 Series feature race at Monaco Circuit. This is the first victory for the Russian driver in GP2 Series.

Championship leader Pierre Gasly started from pitlane having picked up penalty in qualifying. Norman Nato was on the top at the start of the race and defended well all attacks by Sergey Sirotkin. The Russian driver later in the race made too many mistakes in attempt to overtake Nato and finally was forced to retire in lap 23 after he has hit the wall.

Norman Nato, Racing Engineering

A lap earlier Nicholas Latifi also retired after an accident and the Racing Engineering’s Frenchman had an opened way to victory as the other drivers were well behind. The gaps were slightly reduced after virtual safety car was deployed late in the race but Nato still had to pit and his lead wasn’t convincing what prefigured interesting last stage of the race.

Too many accidents caused several virtual safety cars what slowed race a lot, so before the final lap we could see a three-way battle for victory. Finally, Artem Markelov of the Russian Time team was the fastest, leaving Nato and Oliver Rowland 1.5s and 1.6s behind.