Stoffel Vandoorne launched himself back into GP2 championship contention as he claimed his third victory of the season in the Feature Race at Monza.
Vandoorne led from pole position and ultimately beat Arthur Pic by just over half a second, as the Frenchman remained ever-present throughout, but was never able to threaten the McLaren junior driver.
Series leader Jolyon Palmer started from the back of the grid but salvaged eighth position and will start Sunday’s Sprint Race from pole.
The opening lap was a relatively clean affair as pole man Vandoorne opened up a lead over Pic, while behind Raffaele Marciello had a slow start from fourth and Simon Trummer and Artem Markelov stalled.
But on the second lap a wild approach from Kimiya Sato to the Rettifilo chicane caused chaos; as Stefano Coletti attempted to pass Daniël de Jong, Sato approached the corner at speed and struck the side of De Jong on the outside of the braking zone, causing terminal damage to both cars.
As the field avoided the carnage, René Binder clipped Takuya Izawa into a spin, while the recovering Marciello took the gravel to avoid the ART but got stuck.
Vandoorne held his advantage over Pic up front, with the gap remaining stable around the two-second mark until the Belgian pitted for fresh Prime tyres on Lap 12.
Both Pic and third-placed Evans followed suit a lap later, and while Vandoorne came out ahead, it was Marco Sørensen who led a train of drivers – Coletti, Johnny Cecotto Jr. and Jolyon Palmer – who opted to start the race on Primes due to poor qualifying results.
That quartet pitted for Options on Lap 20, handing the lead of the race to Vandoorne, who responded to Pic’s advances.
Evans collected a solid third for Russian Time, while Stéphane Richelmi was fourth for DAMS, ahead of André Negrão.
Felipe Nasr was unable to capitalise on Palmer’s pre-race misfortune and could only manage sixth, while Sørensen was seventh and Palmer eighth after he passed Coletti during the closing laps.
Julián Leal and Daniel Abt were in contention for points until the Colombian racer edged across on his rival under braking for the second Lesmo, sending Abt into the gravel trap and copping a drive through penalty for his own transgression.
