Austria – Race 1: Mitch Evans and Sean Gelael score a one-two for Campos

The GP2 race was similar to the end of the F1 qualifiers. It experienced all weather conditions and was even interrupted by a red flag.

At the start, Sergey Sirotkin was unable to capitalize on his pole position and saw the two Prema drivers overtake him. While Antonio Giovinazzi initially took the lead, he then had to concede to his teammate, Pierre Gasly. The Red Bull protégé was dominating the race until rain began to fall on half the track! Unfortunately for him, the Frenchman then made a mistake and ended up in the gravel trap. He thus missed another opportunity to secure his first victory in the category.

During the safety car intervention to remove the Prema car, many drivers chose to go through the pits to switch to intermediate tires, which proved to be a poor decision. Ultimately, the best among them was Norman Nato, who had to settle for seventh place.

Once the safety car cleared, Antonio Giovinazzi also went wide, leaving the lead to his compatriot Raffaele Marciello. But it was only a temporary setback, and the double winner of Baku regained the lead a few laps later.

Nevertheless, the tricky conditions caught out the German Marvin Kirchhofer, who stalled in the middle of the track. Almost at the same time, Artem Markelov, who had lost time during his tire change, made a mistake in the pit exit corner, forcing the marshals to stop the race to repair the damage to the barrier.

That’s how Mitch Evans found himself in the lead, just ahead of his teammate as they had chosen to get rid of their super soft tires early. Sean Gelael had to face pressure from Raffaele Marciello, but the latter saw his super soft tires not last the distance, which forced him to ease off in the final laps.

The Italian can console himself by taking the lead in the championship, three points ahead of Norman Nato and the day’s winner while Artem Markelov is four points behind.

From our special correspondent in Spielberg