Site icon FormulaRapida.net

Chaotic win for Evans in Spielberg

2016 GP2 Series Round 4 Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria. Friday 1 July 2016. Mitch Evans (NZL, Pertamina Campos Racing) Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Series Media Service. ref: Digital Image _SLA6745

Mitch Evans rose to victory in a chaotic race where absolutely everything happened. Sean Gelael completed the one-two for Campos Racing, while Raffaele Marciello finished on 3rd for Russian Time.

Sirotkin lost first position at the start after Giovinazzi and Gasly overtook him. The Frenchman stole the lead of the race from his teammate at Prema in a nice battle which lasted for a few corners. After Sirotkin, the top 10 was completed by Ghiotto, Marciello, Nato, Markelov, Lynn, Rowland and Kirchhofer.

The rain started falling over the circuit all of a sudden and left a few corners wet while the rest was dry. Pic was the only one changing for wet tyres at first. Gasly, who was leading the race, spun and beached his Prema on the gravel, which brought the Safety Car out. Everyone went in for wet tyres except for Giovinazzi, Sirotkin, Marciello, Ghiotto, Markelov, Rowland and Armand, while Nato, Lynn, Kirchhöfer, Evans, King and Pic were the first ones with wet tyres.

Marciello was the fastest driver with the wet track and climbed up to 1st place. Sirotkin lost position with Rowland and Markelov, while Ghiotto overtook the three of them after they all ran wide. The constant mistakes by the drivers in front who struggled with slicks allowed Gelael and Evans to catch the leading pack. Giovinazzi got the lead of the race back and tried to keep Marciello and Ghiotto behind. Markelov was 4th ahead of Sirotkin, Rowland, Evans, Gelael, Binder and Armand.
The Safety Car went back on track after Kirchhöfer spun and stalled in the middle of the track, a chance the drivers used to change to slick tyres. The championship leader Markelov had a slow pit stop and after that he crashed at the pit lane exit, causing a red flag which stopped the race.

Evans was 1st on the restart ahead of his teammate Gelael and Armans, who got a penalty for overtaking the Safety Car. Binder and Giovinazzi stalled on the pit lane. Giovinazzi was able to keep going, but he didn’t make it very far and stopped at the pit lane exit, blocking Binder‘s way for 2 laps. The top 10 was completed by Eriksson, Marciello, Ghiotto, Sirotkin, Rowland, Nato and Latifi.

Eriksson lost position with Marciello and Ghiotto, while Rowland overtook Sirotkin, who was also overtaken by Nato. Evans opened a gap from Gelael by setting the fastest lap while some raindrops were still falling all over the circuit and everyone was using slicks. Rowland overtook Eriksson for 5th but the Swede took it back a few laps later.

Finally, Evans got an unexpected win ahead of Gelael and Marciello. Ghiotto, Eriksson, Rowland, Nato, Sirotkin, Malja and King completed the top 10.