Nato wins second Monza GP2 race as poleman Evans retires

Autosport

Norman Nato claimed his first GP2 win since the Barcelona season-opener in May in the Monza sprint race.

Pierre Gasly added a little to his championship lead by battling through to second ahead of Prema team-mate and title rival Antonio Giovinazzi.

Racing Engineering team-mates Nato and Jordan King had burst through to first and second in a busy start, as reverse grid polesitter Mitch Evans got away slowly and then banged wheels with Luca Ghiotto on the charge from the line.

Oliver Rowland then ran into the back of Ghiotto into the Roggia chicane, ending the Italian’s race, with Evans taken out at the same moment as Gustav Malja clattered over the inside kerb and into him. Giovinazzi picked up wing damage from Malja in the same mess.

While Nato controlled the race from there, King began to lose pace.

Gasly had emerged from the first corner in third and overtook King for second approaching half-distance – the pair running wheel to wheel from the entry to the first chicane, through the Curva Grande and into the Roggia before Gasly could make the move stick.

Nato was three seconds clear by then and Gasly had no answer for him, finishing 4.3s behind his countryman.

Giovinazzi passed Malja and King to secure third, with Malja fourth on the road but down to ninth in the results when a 10s penalty for taking out Evans was applied.

Artem Markelov overtook Alex Lynn and Nobuharu Matsushita to claim fifth, with Lynn pipping Matsushita for sixth in a photo finish after a last-lap Parabolica move.

Rowland was also penalised for the first lap tangles, dropping him to 11th behind Nicolas Latifi, Malja and Marvin Kirchhofer.

Saturday runner-up Raffaele Marciello couldn’t get his car off the dummy grid and had to start from the pitlane, joining Arthur Pic, who was penalised for sending Sergio Canamasas into a roll in race one.

Pic did best in the battle through the traffic, reaching 12th while Marciello was 15th.

Sergey Sirotkin’s title hopes now look remote after he had to park his ART car with a gearbox failure early on.

NEWS UPDATE: VSC penalties for Markelov and Latifi

RACE TWO RESULTS

POSDRIVERTEAMLAPSGAP
1Norman NatoRacing Engineering2133m51.821s
2Pierre GaslyPrema Racing214.312s
3Antonio GiovinazziPrema Racing218.495s
4Jordan KingRacing Engineering2112.775s
5Artem MarkelovRUSSIAN TIME2112.813s
6Alex LynnDAMS2113.576s
7Nobuharu MatsushitaART Grand Prix2113.586s
8Nicholas LatifiDAMS2121.503s
9Gustav MaljaRapax2121.526s
10Marvin KirchhoferCarlin2122.566s
11Oliver RowlandMP Motorsport2129.225s
12Arthur PicRapax2134.192s
13Nabil JeffriArden International2134.194s
14Sergio CanamasasCarlin2136.845s
15Raffaele MarcielloRUSSIAN TIME2140.665s
16Sean GelaelPertamina Campos Racing2144.059s
17Philo Paz ArmandTrident2148.628s
18Jimmy ErikssonArden International201 Lap
19Daniel de JongMP Motorsport201 Lap
Sergey SirotkinART Grand Prix6Retirement
Mitch EvansPertamina Campos Racing0Collision
Luca GhiottoTrident0Collision

Nato wins second Monza GP2 race as poleman Evans retires

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