Race – Belgium: Stoffel Vandoorne wins in front of his home crowd
Stoffel Vandoorne took full advantage of his pole position to win the first GP2 race. This event was marked by the very serious accident of Daniel de Jong, who fortunately emerged unscathed from the crash.
The local contender didn’t have an easy race. He didn’t get the best start of the year and was overtaken at the first corner by Sergey Sirotkin, who started from third place. Nevertheless, the Russian missed the Source corner and went too far, allowing Stoffel Vandoorne to retake the lead of the race.
On the other hand, Alexander Rossi had the perfect start: taking advantage of the collision between Oliver Rowland and Nobu Matsushita and the ensuing chaos, the American was able to move from 8th to second place by the first corner. His teammate at Racing Engineering, Jordan King, meanwhile, engaged in an epic battle with Alex Lynn, going side-by-side through Eau Rouge on the second lap.
In the fifth lap, Daniel de Jong saw an opportunity to overtake Pierre Gasly, but the French driver did not leave him enough space on the outside. The MP Motorsport driver went straight into the Blanchimont wall. After several long minutes of anxiety, it was reported that the survival cell had done its job and the driver was unharmed. Nevertheless, the repair work caused a red flag for about thirty minutes.
The accident completely disrupted the strategies of the different drivers, with varying fortunes depending on the initial strategies. Thus, Vandoorne, Pic, Haryanto, and Markelov found themselves on the right side as they had all started on soft tires. They only had to switch to medium tires and reach the finish.
Conversely, Rossi, Evans, Sirotkin, King, and Lynn were forced to change their soft tires much earlier than expected, and what was bound to happen did: those tires couldn’t make it to the finish. This forced them to pit again, allowing Stoffel Vandoorne to calmly regain his lead position.
Arthur Pic and Artem Markelov took full advantage of their good strategy, as the French driver finished second after starting 14th. Similarly, the Russian finished on his first podium after starting 22nd on the grid and facing pressure from Julian Leal!
As for Alexander Rossi, he lost another position following the aggressive overtaking by Mitch Evans in the final chicane, which made him concede even more points to Stoffel Vandoorne. Vandoorne now has a 110-point lead and is getting closer and closer to the title.
From our special correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps
