Sentul – Race 1 Asia – Filippi takes advantage of the rain

Luca Filippi delivered a very impressive performance this afternoon during the first race of the Indonesian weekend at Sentul – the second round of the season. The Brazilian on a Qi-Meritus took advantage of the downpour to emerge in the lead after 46 laps of the race with only 11 cars at the finish…

Filippi took the lead of the race with 15 laps to go, taking advantage of several incidents and only after overtaking the Swiss driver Buemi. The latter stayed within 5 seconds of the Brazilian for the rest of the race before closing in on Filippi’s tailpipes in the final three laps, making the finish very confusing. The two drivers, fully focused, even continued fighting until the lap after the checkered flag, not knowing when the race had actually ended.

In the end, Filippi held the lead and clinched his first victory in the discipline: « I was very fast until about 10 laps from the end. But from there I struggled a bit with the car and I wasn’t the fastest, leaving me with a real battle in the final laps. »

« Nevertheless, I am very happy to have won the race, especially with the only Asian team in the championship. We had the crowd behind us, so it’s great.

At the start, four drivers collided, hindering two other drivers in the second lap, including Karun Chandhok. After several laps, 6 single-seaters were already out of the race, leaving the safety car to lead the field for 10 laps.

During this period, most drivers took advantage and made their only mandatory pit stop. Bruno Senna, then in the lead, gambled on not refueling at that time and found himself trapped a few laps later. Diego Nunes’s violent off-track excursion forced the safety car to re-enter the track. At the restart, Senna and Yoshimoto jumped the gun and received a penalty.

It was from that moment on that Filippi was able to take the lead in the race by overtaking Sebastian Buemi and maintained his first place until the end.

Valles completes the podium ahead of Ben Hanley, a GP2 rookie who started 18th on the grid.

Romain Grosjean finishes 5th. The Frenchman encountered a problem during his pit stop, forcing him to rejoin at the back of the grid. He gradually climbed up the standings, allowing him to earn valuable points and start 4th tomorrow for race 2.

Petrov, Pavlovic and Senna complete the top 8. The latter will therefore be on pole position tomorrow since the ranking of the top 8 is reversed to determine the starting order for the second race. Senna, who set the fastest lap in the race on the 43rd lap, also earns an extra point.

In the championship, Romain Grosjean temporarily holds the lead ahead of Filippi, Senna, and Vallès.

GP2 ASIA – Indonesia – Race 1