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Nathanaël Berthon, from start to finish

2013 GP2 Series. Round 7. Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary. 27th July 2013. Saturday Race. Nathanael Berthon (FRA, Trident Racing). Action. World Copyright: Alastair Staley/GP2 Media Service Ref: _R6T3912

The race started with an early incident in Turn 1, Sergio Canamasas and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs had a contact, and Daniel de Jong was not able to avoid them, so the three drivers were out of the race. The Safety Car was deployed for two laps. The yesterday’s winner, Jolyon Palmer, had a bad start and lost five positions, the pole sitter, Nathanaël Berthon, did a nice start and kept the first place.

At the re-start, top drivers kept their positions.In lap 5, Dani Clos had a puncture and Stefano Coletti had some problems, so they had to do a pit stop. In a few laps, Nathanaël Berthon opened a gap around 3.5 seconds that kept during the rest of the race. Sam Bird was climbing positions, but he was told to save tyres for the end of the race. Mitch Evans was also told to save tyres, but he did not want to keep losing time with Nathanaël Berthon. The third classified, Fabio Leimer, was 10 seconds behind the leader in lap 12, so it looked like it was going to be a battle within Berthon and Evans.

Alexander Rossi tried to pass Julian Leal, but he could not avoid a little collision and caused a puncture to Julian Leal, who had to retire from the race. Alexander Rossi was given a drive through penalty for that move. Meanwhile, Sam Bird was told again to save his tyres, he was in P8, the last one of a group fighting for the fifth place, which was hold for Felipe Nasr, but finally there was no fight to see, as all drivers started to have a low grip, and they had a similar pace.

Marcus Ericsson was in P4, racing at his own pace, what allowed him to save tyres and starting to attack at the end of the race, trying to get Fabio Leimer, but he also had been saving tyres, so there was no chance for Ericsson to get him. Mitch Evans had better tyres than Nathanaël Berthon at the end of the race, so the New Zealander started to close the gap between them, but Berthon managed that gap in an excellent way, so he kept taking it easy to the finish line. Finally, the Frenchman got his first ever win. Mitch Evans finally slowed down, and got an excellent second place, and Fabio Leimer was third. It was a much quieter race than yesterday, and the top 8 did not move after the first laps.

Stefano Coletti a lot of problems, but he is still leading the championship in front of Felipe Nasr.

P Driver Team Dif.
1 Nathanaël Berthon Trident Racing
2 Mitch Evans Arden International +2.2
3 Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering +13.4
4 Marcus Ericsson DAMS +15.9
5 Felipe Nasr Carlin +23.3
6 James Calado ART Grand Prix +27.2
7 Simon Trummer Rapax +31.3
8 Sam Bird Russian Time +37.9
9 Stéphane Richelmi DAMS +40.0
10 Rio Haryanto Barwa Addax Team +43.9
11 Tom Dillmann Russian Time +44.3
12 Jolyon Palmer Carlin +51.4
13 Rene Binder Venezuela GP Lazarus +51.6
14 Daniel Abt ART Grand Prix +56.3
15 Jake Rosenzweig Barwa Addax Team +61.0
16 Alexander Rossi EQ8 Caterham Racing +65.6
17 Vittorio Ghirelli Venezuela GP Lazarus +71.5
18 Jon lancaster Hilmer Motorsport +72.3
19 Ricardo Teixeira Trident Racing +73.0
20 Stefano Coletti Rapax +1L
21 Julian Leal Racing Engineering +1L
22 Dani Clos MP Motorsport OUT
23 Johnny Cecotto Arden International OUT
24 Sergio Canamasas EQ8 Caterham Racing OUT
25 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport OUT
26 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Hilmer Motorsport OUT