Leimer sprints to Barcelona victory

Fabio Leimer has repeated his sterling performance from last year with another strong drive from pole to claim victory in this morning's sprint race in Barcelona, leading all the way to win by ten seconds from Dani Clos and Marcus Ericsson.

The Swiss driver made a good start when the lights went out to lead the field into turn one, with Clos powering by a slow starting Jules Bianchi. The Frenchman was swamped at the start, with a charging Giedo van der Garde Pic bottled up between them: Bianchi pushed left, the Dutchman ran out of road, and the pair were into the wall with a safety car period to clean up the mess.

At the restart the top six (Leimer, Clos, Ericsson, Sam Bird, Davide Valsecchi and Stefano Coletti) were given a bonus as Pic bottled up the field behind him as he had to pit for a black and orange flag, putting clear air between Coletti and Josef Kral. With tire wear critical on the warming track, any gift was welcome with a long race to run.

At the front Leimer eased away from his rivals, pushing at his own pace as he went, while Coletti was attacking the Italian hard to P5. The Monegasque's efforts took too much from his tires, however, and towards the end of the race he fell back into the clutches of Kral: the pair ran side by side into turn one but didn't leave each other any margin, and they were soon watching the closing laps from the sidelines.

And when the flag dropped it was Leimer who was punching the air with delight, ten seconds ahead of Clos and another ten seconds to the good over Ericsson. Valsecchi soaked up the early pressure from Coletti and then took advantage of Bird's aging tires to claim fourth in the closing stages, with Fairuz Fauzy picking up the final point donated by Coletti and Kral.

At the end of the second weekend of the season van der Garde and Bird share the lead of the championship with 21 points a piece, ahead of Pic on 15, Grosjean on 13 and Coletti on 10, while in the team's title run Addax have pulled ahead of iSport by 36 points to 29, with Dams third on 13, two ahead of Team AirAsia with Trident a further point back on 10.

Barcelona – Sprint race
Pos. Driver Team
1. Fabio Leimer Rapax
2. Dani Clos Racing Engineering
3. Marcus Ericsson iSport International
4. Davide Valsecchi Team AirAsia
5. Sam Bird iSport International
6. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova Racing
7. Alvaro Parente Racing Engineering
8. Pal Varhaug Dams
9. Romain Grosjean Dams
10. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident Racing
11. Max Chilton Carlin
12. Esteban Gutierrez Lotus ART
13. Johnny Cecotto Ocean Racing Technology
14. Julian Leal Rapax
15. Kevin Ceccon Scuderia Coloni
16. Kevin Mirocha Ocean Racing Technology
17. Jolyon Palmer Arden International
18. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin
19. Charles Pic Barwa Addax Team
20. Stefano Coletti Trident Racing
21. Josef Kral Arden International

Not Classified
Luiz Razia Team AirAsia
Luca Filippi Super Nova Racing
Michael Herck Scuderia Coloni
Jules Bianchi Lotus ART
Giedo van der Garde Barwa Addax Team

Fastest Lap : Charles Pic (Barwa Adda Team) – 1 :33.725 on lap 21