GP2: Sirotkin over Rossi at Silverstone

From left, Alexander Rossi (Racing Engineering), Sergey Sirotkin (Rapax), Stoffel Vandoorne (ART Grand Prix)

Sergey Sirotkin has claimed his maiden GP2 victory in emphatic fashion, blowing away his rivals with an impressive display of speed and nerve to reclaim the lead and power his way to the win, six seconds to the good from Alexander Rossi and series leader Stoffel Vandoorne.

The Russian made a slow getaway from pole: the Belgian got away better from second but Richie Stanaway got away even better from third, splitting the pair to lead into turn one, while behind them Rossi went wide and a fast starting Nobuharu Matsushita went even wider to claim P3 between Sirotkin and Vandoorne.

A brief safety car period for an incident between Artem Markelov and Nathanael Berthon gave the Russian the chance he was looking for: as the race went live he mugged Stanaway into the final corner, handing the Japanese driver a clean line through too while Rossi sat on Vandoorne’s rear wing and waited for his moment to shine.

The pair gained a place on lap 6 when Matsushita stopped with electrical gremlins as Nick Yelloly and Jordan King were the first of the soft shod drivers to make their pitstop, with King jumping his countryman in the process, giving the prime-shod drivers a target when their stops shook out.

Rossi stalks then passes points leader Vandoorne

Stanaway was soon struggling for pace, the head of a train with Vandoorne and Rossi in his wake, but the McLaren tester was slightly baulked into Village on lap 15, forced wide enough to give the American a ticket inside and through. Rossi wasn't resting on his laurels: next time through he made short work of Stanaway under the bridge, with the Belgian repeating the move on the next lap before leading the New Zealander into the pits.

Rossi and Sirotkin came in over the next 2 laps, with the Russian easily holding his lead over the American as both emerged ahead of King, but all eyes were on their rivals further behind: Pierre Gasly came out just behind Vandoorne on lap 21 after a lengthy battle with Arthur Pic, who came in next time through but lost time (and places) and emerged a few spots further back.

Stanaway’s tough race became terminal through a suspension failure with 7 laps remaining, while King was at the head of a train consisting of Vandoorne, Yelloly, Gasly, Alex Lynn, Oliver Rowland, Pic and Raffaele Marciello: the closing laps saw a frantic battle between them all while out ahead Sirotkin stretched away to an easy win, with Rossi and Vandoorne eventually joining him on the podium.

The remainder of the points-paying positions weren’t certain until the flag: Lynn pushed his teammate all the way to the line but it was Gasly who held on for P4, while Pic tried to overtake King into the final complex but couldn’t quite make it before tapping the Englishman into a spin on the final corner, who was unable to get going again. Behind Pic was Marciello, who mugged Yelloly on the penultimate corner, with Rowland finishing in the points on his debut in P9, ahead of Rio Haryanto.

Silverstone – Feature Race

POS NO DRIVERS TEAMS LAPS TIME GAP INT. BEST LAP
1 18 S. Sirotkin Rapax 29 53:13.597 0.000s 0.000s 1:42.734 28
2 8 A. Rossi Racing Engineering 29 53:19.586 5.989 5.989 1:43.062 28
3 5 S. Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 29 53:27.163 13.566 7.577 1:43.971 27
4 1 P. Gasly DAMS 29 53:30.326 16.729 3.163 1:43.148 29
5 2 A. Lynn DAMS 29 53:34.143 20.546 3.817 1:43.334 24
6 14 A. Pic Campos Racing 29 53:36.519 22.922 2.376 1:44.175 26
7 11 R. Marciello Trident 29 53:37.147 23.550 0.628 1:44.163 23
8 24 N. Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 29 53:37.476 23.879 0.329 1:44.569 10
9 16 O. Rowland MP Motorsport 29 53:38.758 25.161 1.282 1:44.202 10
10 15 R. Haryanto Campos Racing 29 53:39.034 25.437 0.276 1:44.317 10
11 3 J. Leal Carlin 29 53:42.350 28.753 3.316 1:44.732 11
12 17 D. De Jong MP Motorsport 29 53:43.970 30.373 1.620 1:43.926 24
13 19 R. Visoiu Rapax 29 53:50.519 36.922 6.549 1:44.693 10
14 4 J. Cecotto Carlin 29 53:51.033 37.436 0.514 1:44.209 26
15 27 S. Canamasas Daiko Team Lazarus 29 53:57.874 44.277 6.841 1:44.204 21
16 25 J. Lancaster Hilmer Motorsport 29 54:03.447 49.850 5.573 1:43.430 26
17 12 R. Binder Trident 29 54:07.260 53.663 3.813 1:45.167 10
18 21 N. Nato Arden International 29 54:11.041 57.444 3.781 1:45.297 27
19 22 M. Stockinger Status Grand Prix 29 54:14.464 60.867 3.423 1:45.129 21
20 20 A. Negrão Arden International 29 54:17.996 64.399 3.532 1:43.977 25
21 10 A. Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 29 54:40.289 86.692 22.293 1:44.497 23
22 7 J. King Racing Engineering 28 51:49.484 DNF 1:44.648 8
DNF 23 R. Stanaway Status Grand Prix 22 41:50.626 DNF 1:44.904 10
DNF 9 M. Evans RUSSIAN TIME 9 18:10.774 DNF 1:46.414 8
DNF 6 N. Matsushita ART Grand Prix 6 12:37.052 DNF 1:45.290 5
DNF 26 N. Berthon Daiko Team Lazarus 0 DNF

Fastest Lap: Sergey Sirotkin (Rapax) – 1:42.734 on lap 28