New Zealand driver Mitch Evans took his first GP2 Series victory after a storming drive at the British Grand Prix round in Britain overnight.
Just twelve days after turning 20 – and four rounds into his second GP2 season – the former GP3 Champion put in a mature and masterful performance to soundly beat overall series leader Jolyon Palmer by 4.9 seconds.
Third-placed McLaren Formula 1 protégé Stoffel Vandoorne was a distant 25.6 seconds behind the flying Evans at the finish.
Evans started third on the 26-car grid and his Russian Time car snatched the lead by undercutting Palmer during the mandatory pit stop to change tyres.
He held off a spirited challenge from Palmer on the fast sweeping Silverstone circuit, before pulling steadily away to win the 29 lap race with a string of fastest lap times.
The bonus points for fastest lap, and the maiden win in GP2; have lifted Evans from eighth to fourth in the overall standings after nine races of the 22-race International championship.
Evans scored only 2pts from the two opening rounds in Malaysia and Spain but has scored points in every race since; at Monaco, Austria and now Britain.
“We’ve waited a long time for this one; it feels nice,” said Evans on the Silverstone podium; watched by his mentor Mark Webber.
“The last 18 months have been really tricky for us, for me and my family, and it’s a huge relief for everything to come together finally for my first win in GP2. It’s been far too long, but I’m really, really happy to finally get the monkey off my back.
Evans explained his sluggish start, which he put down to a clutch problem. “I think there was a potential clutch problem on the car after the second race in Austria with a bit of a dip on the bite point, and I thought it was going to stall, to be honest.
“Fortunately with Jolyon on the right (side of the grid) being on the damp side of the track, and with everyone else making bad starts apart from Marciello, I got away with it and managed to get Jolyon into turn three.
“The car wasn’t really working nice for the first few laps, and then after Jolyon got me I got into a good rhythm and was able to stay with the guys and have a crack when it came to the pitstop.
“Fortunately the guys gave me a good car and I was able to stay with Jolyon and make it work, and had a great pitstop from the guys, which has been a bit of an achilles heel for us.
“I was really surprised coming out of the pits and they told me Jolyon was just coming out of turn one. It’s hard to know if the undercut or the overcut is going to work, so I just made the most of what I had, and fortunately I still had some life left in the tyres and had a good in-lap.
“I think we had the fastest pitstop so that really helped, and after that it was really close between us. The option (tyre) came in quicker than I thought, which really helped me, and after Copse I just put my head down. The car was better than what it was at the start of the race, and that’s to the credit of the guys.
“We’ve been playing a lot of catch up since the start of the season because the iSport guys have come back into the championship with Russian Time, and being a year out has hurt us a bit, but we’re getting stronger.
“They’re starting to realise more and more what I need from the car, and I think that really showed this weekend,” said Evans.
“We made some good strides in Austria which didn’t really show in the races, but I think we can be consistently on the podium and can hopefully win some more races in the future.
Tonight’s (Sunday) shorter GP2 race has a ‘reverse top eight grid’ which means Evans will line up on the outside of the fourth row for the 21 lap sprint race with no compulsory tyre change.
The race (GP2 Media)
Mitch Evans claimed his first GP2 win with a strong drive in damp conditions after recovering from a slow start ..
In a strategic race Evans and his Russian Time team out-thought their rivals, picking the right tyres and package to be in the right place at the end. Poleman Raffaele Marciello blasted off the line, with fellow front row starter Palmer doing enough to hold station.
Evans made a slower getaway but caught the Briton quickly, slipping by at turn three as Palmer slowed before getting underway again, just holding off a charging Felipe Nasr who mugged Vandoorne for fourth, ahead of Stefano Coletti and Johnny Cecotto.
Half of the grid started on softer option tyres and half on the harder prime tyres, with Marciello on the former while Evans and Palmer were on the latter.
The gamble on pitstop strategy was set to decide the race, and when a mistake by Evans saw the Briton steal second place it looked to be the battle of the front row once again.
Marciello, a Ferrari Academy driver, nursed his softer rubber to lap ten, just over a third of the race distance, and looked to be in command as the gap to Palmer after his stop was in his favour as he overtook the last of the prime drivers on the way.
Unfortunately for the Italian a mechanical gremlin undid all his good work four laps later and he pulled off track, while Evans was biding his time and slowly biting into the lead.
Palmer came in on lap 18, Evans one later with a storming in lap, and when he emerged from the pits his mirrors were full of the championship-leading car.
Palmer knew he had to make a move stick immediately for the win and threw everything at it, with the pair running side by side through sector two before Evans was able to just squeeze his rival slightly at Club to give him track advantage, and then relied on the car to build a gap.
When the chequered flag dropped Evans had built a gap of nearly five seconds to Palmer to secure his debut win, with Vandoorne securing best of the rest 25.6 seconds further back.
Results - 29 laps
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Mitch Evans Russian Time 50m56.307s
2. Jolyon Palmer DAMS +4.900s
3. Stoffel Vandoorne ART +25.600s
4. Julian Leal Carlin +31.900s
5. Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering +32.000s
6. Johnny Cecotto Jr Trident +32.200s
7. Felipe Nasr Carlin +32.900s
8. Stephane Richelmi DAMS +34.800s
9. Marco Sorensen MP +35.000s
10. Daniel Abt Hilmer +40.200s
11. Arthur Pic Campos +43.000s
12. Alexander Rossi Caterham +44.500s
13. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Rapax +45.700s
14. Conor Daly Lazarus +47.400s
15. Sergio Canamasas Trident +49.500s
16. Takuya Izawa ART +56.100s
17. Nathanael Berthon Lazarus +57.800s
18. Artem Markelov Russian Time +1m00.900s
19. Daniel de Jong MP +1m01.600s
20. Andre Negrao Arden +1m03.900s
21. Rio Haryanto Caterham +1m04.700s
22. Jon Lancaster Hilmer +1m05.000s
23. Kimiya Sato Campos +1m18.400s
24. Rene Binder Arden -2 laps
25. Simon Trummer Rapax -3 laps
Retirements
Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering 14 laps
