Vandoorne emerges from chaos to become victorious

The 2015 GP2 season kicked off with drama, devastation and an emphatic win for championship contender Stoffel Vandoorne. A tangle in the opening laps between three of the French drivers and Ferrari junior Rafaele Marciello took all four of them out, bringing the fight for the podium to those further down the field.

A good start from Vandoorne saw him keep hold of his lead from pole, with Lynn making his way up to second after a shocking start from Matsushita put him down to 14th, and Nato firing off the grid from 2nd to 7th. Further down the grid Markelov and Negrao came together, unable to avoid the contact so often seen in the midfield.

Carlin’s Marco Sørensen’s third lap battle with Daniel De Jong resulted in a puncture and the end of the race for the Dane. A fight between Marciello and Nato for P3 resulted in both drivers being passed by an opportunistic Arthur Pic, with Nato slipping past the Italian.

Despite the magnificent wheel to wheel racing, it was to end in tears for all three drivers and the closely following Pierre Gasly. Nato squeezing Marciello too early on towards the apex saw the Arden and Trident drivers clashing, tapping Pic into a spin in front of them and boxing in Gasly behind them; the only path for the Red Bull junior being into the sidepod of the backwards facing Campos.

The Safety Car period coincided with the opening of the pit window, playing into the hands of those who started on the soft compound tyres. Lynn, Rossi, Evans and King were amongst those who’d taken this strategy, Rossi jumping Lynn and Evans finding his way past King to put themselves in contention for the win at the end of the race.

Lynn was right on Rossi’s tail at the restart, perhaps too close as the Brit ran into the back of the American at the first corner.

Free from the reigning GP3 champion, Rossi worked his way up through the field, severe rear degradation hampering Lynn and allowing Evans, Negrao and King past quickly, and by the end of the race the entire field had overtaken him, his frustrated radio message shouting “I can’t keep control of the car anymore!” only being the beginning.

The battle for the lead intensified as Vandoorne pitted, only to reemerge with a pace 5 seconds a lap faster than the lead group. Evans’ tyres hit the cliff, allowing King into P2, meanwhile Vandoorne was weaving his way through the minor points scorers and catching up the Evans/Negrao/King battle for the podium.

Haryanto was following in Vandoorne’s tracks, whizzing through the top 10. The last few laps were intensely fought, Vandoorne setting the fastest lap, Rossi being passed by the resurgent Belgian and the Indonesian and demoted to the final step of the podium.

Stoffel Vandoorne takes a full haul of points into tomorrow’s sprint race where he will start from P8. Julian Leal takes reverse grid pole, followed by Nathaniel Berthon and Mitch Evans.

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