Race 1 – GP2: Stoffel Vandoorne continues his domination at the Red Bull Ring
For the fifth consecutive time, Stoffel Vandoorne won the main race in GP2. Sergey Sirotkin had his best race of the season by finishing second, while Alex Lynn managed to finish on the podium.
The rivals of Stoffel Vandoorne have therefore not managed to break his domination that has continued since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last season. Once again, he was able to make perfect use of his pole position to take off, which was not the case for his teammate Nobuharu Matsushita, who once again had a difficult start despite being on the front row.
Starting 9th, Alex Lynn also had a difficult launch as he lost three places before the first corner. However, he managed to make up for his deficit by the end of the first lap. The Williams protégé was then on his way to an aggressive race, with an alternate strategy: while the majority of the field, starting with Stoffel Vandoorne, chose to stop early to switch to hard tires, the two DAMS drivers, Pierre Gasly and Alex Lynn, had chosen to start with the soft tires.
The two teammates battled for a few laps before Alex Lynn eventually gained the upper hand over the Red Bull driver, who ultimately dropped down the standings to finish 13th under the checkered flag. But the battle continued remotely between Alex Lynn and Stoffel Vandoorne, who were both trying to achieve the fastest lap in the race. In this contest, it was the Briton who eventually prevailed.
But while the Belgian lost the battle for the fastest lap, he won the race war by managing to take the lead during his rival’s pit stop on the 32nd lap, and holding onto it until the end. Behind him, Sergey Sirotkin confirmed his strong qualifying performance by finishing second, marking his best result since joining at the beginning of the season, while Alex Lynn took advantage of his alternate strategy to complete the podium.
Behind Alexander Rossi, who started far back on the grid, was once again a victim of bad luck with a puncture towards the end of the season, which dropped him to 6th position, behind the Japanese ART Grand Prix driver and Artem Markelov.
1. Stoffel Vandoorne (ART Grand Prix)
2. Sergey Sirotkin (Rapax)
3. Alex Lynn (DAMS)
4. Nobuharu Matsushita (ART Grand Prix)
5. Artem Markelov (RUSSIAN TIME)
6. Alexander Rossi (Racing Engineering)
7. Rio Haryanto (Campos Racing)
8. Nick Yelloly (Hilmer Motorsport)
9. Arthur Pic (Campos Racing)
10. Mitch Evans (RUSSIAN TIME)
11. Robert Visoiu (Rapax)
12. Jordan King (Racing Engineering)
13. Pierre Gasly (DAMS)
14. Julian Leal (Carlin)
15. Raffaele Marciello (Trident)
16. André Negrao (Arden International)
17. Rene Binder (Trident)
18. Marco Sorensen (Carlin)
19. Marlon Stockinger (Status Grand Prix)
20. Norman Nato (Arden International)
21. Daniel De Jong (MP Motorsport)
22. Simon Trummer (Hilmer Motorsport)
23. Richie Stanaway (Status Grand Prix)
