Pierre Gasly led a one-two for Prema in Silverstone, his first win since 2013. His teammate Giovinazzi was 2nd ahead of Rowland in a race where tyre strategy played a crucial role.
The Racing Engineering had great starts, which allowed Nato to comfortably keep the lead and King to climb up to 4th. Latifi fell down from 3rd to 5th in lap 2 after King and Rowland overtook him. Giovinazzi started losing positions and was overtaken by Marciello, Evans, Pic and Markelov. Marciello overtook Rowland, who lost position with Evans, Pic and Markelov in the following 3 corners. Rowland and Giovinazzi pitted as soon as possible to get rid of their soft tyres, which did not seem to work well. King stole P2 from Gasly before the Frenchman pitted as well.
The drivers who started with the hard compound stayed on track for much longer, fearing degradation of the soft tyres. Gasly was the virtual leader while waiting for Nato, King, Latifi, Marciello, Evans, Pic and Markelov to pit. Markelov overtook Pic, who made a mistake and lost several positions. Marciello‘s tyres dropped their pace and he was the first one to pit with 8 laps to go. Before that, he fell down to 6th and Markelov overtook Evans and Latifi at the same time, climbing up to 3rd. Nato pitted with 7 laps to go and came behind Gasly, Rowland, Ghiotto, Giovinazzi and Matsushita. Both Racing Engineering had slow pit stops and Evans almost overtook both of them on the pits, but he stayed between Nato and King. Markelov was the last one to pit, but another slow pit stop left him 13th after rejoining the track.
Gasly was leading ahead of Rowland, while Giovinazzi overtook Ghiotto for 3rd. Matsushita, Nato, Evans, Latifi, King and Kirchhöfer completed the top 10. King stole P8 from Latifi, while Evans overtook Nato for P6. Kirchhöfer lost the last points position with Marciello and Markelov.
Finally, Gasly got his first GP2 win after dominating the race thanks to the optimal strategy. Giovinazzi overtook Rowland in the last lap for P2, while Evans was finally 4th ahead of Ghiotto, Mastushita, Nato, King, Marciello and Markelov. The Frenchman, who was 8th in the championship standings before the race, is now the new leader after his victory.
