Evans takes second GP2 win of the season in Bahrain Sprint

Autosport

Mitch Evans took his second GP2 win of the season after a frenetic Bahrain battle with Williams Formula 1 development driver Alex Lynn.

From sixth on the grid Evans took advantage of a messy start by Nobuharu Matsushita, who was up to second before he made contact with Rio Haryanto and spun.

The clash forced several drivers wide and left the Honda protege out of the race.

This allowed Evans to move up to third behind Stoffel Vandoorne and polesitter Lynn.

Any early progress was halted, though, when the safety car was deployed following contact between Oliver Rowland and Rene Binder.

Formula Renault 3.5 champion Rowland went over the back of Binder’s Dallara, and was sent airborne, before landing hard back on the track and sliding off into the barriers.

After the restart Lynn moved himself out of DRS range from Vandoorne, but the Belgian was more preoccupied with Evans behind him.

The Russian Time driver lined Vandoorne up for a pass at Turn 1 but couldn’t make it stick, so switched back for a better run into the next few corners.

The move worked perfectly for Evans and he was able to dive down the inside of Vandoorne and relieve him of second place at Turn 3.

Evans quickly set about chasing down Lynn for the lead and within three laps the gap between the two was down to 0.4 seconds.

The Kiwi tried to repeat his switchback move on Vandoorne but Lynn was wise to it and held onto the lead, but only for a few more laps.

Evans briefly took the lead into Turn 1 before Lynn regained the place at Turn 3, but there was nothing the DAMS driver could do on the following lap as Evans completed a bold, late-braking move up the inside of Turn 3.

From that point on Evans disappeared into the distance and remained untouched to take his second win of the season, and second podium finish of the weekend.

Lynn on the other hand fell into the clutches of Vandoorne, who breezed past the Brit at Turn 1 with the help of DRS.

Further back, Sergey Sirotkin completed an outrageous move on the outside of Turn 12 on the final lap to take fourth from Raffaele Marciello.

Jordan King completed an impressive recovery drive after running wide at Turn 1 to avoid contact with Matsushita.

The Racing Engineering driver was able to demote Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly on the final lap at Turn 3 to take his best finish since the sprint race at Spa in August.

Artem Markelov ran in fourth for the majority of the race but fell down the order in the closing stages due to tyre wear.

Alexander Rossi finished ninth ahead of Norman Nato, who started last after picking up a puncture in the feature race.

RESULTS – 23 LAPS:

PosDriverTeamGap
1Mitch EvansRUSSIAN TIME42m51.663s
2Stoffel VandoorneART Grand Prix1.863s
3Alex LynnDAMS17.489s
4Sergey SirotkinRapax20.154s
5Raffaele MarcielloTrident21.026s
6Jordan KingRacing Engineering21.661s
7Pierre GaslyDAMS22.857s
8Artem MarkelovRUSSIAN TIME26.686s
9Alexander RossiRacing Engineering27.295s
10Norman NatoArden International34.387s
11Nicholas LatifiMP Motorsport37.588s
12Dean StonemanCarlin42.637s
13Gustav MaljaRapax45.771s
14Daniel de JongTrident47.088s
15Sean GelaelCarlin48.410s
16Arthur PicCampos Racing48.602s
17Sergio CanamasasDaiko Team Lazarus59.866s
18Rio HaryantoCampos Racing59.942s
19Marlon StockingerStatus Grand Prix1m01.931s
20Andre NegraoArden International1m09.902s
Nathanael BerthonDaiko Team LazarusRetirement
Rene BinderMP MotorsportRetirement
Oliver RowlandStatus Grand PrixRetirement
Nobuharu MatsushitaART Grand PrixRetirement

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP:

PosDriverPoints
1Stoffel Vandoorne316.5
2Alexander Rossi169.5
3Sergey Sirotkin139
4Rio Haryanto132
5Mitch Evans120
6Alex Lynn106
7Pierre Gasly96
8Raffaele Marciello92
9Nobuharu Matsushita68.5
10Richie Stanaway60
11Arthur Pic60
12Jordan King52
13Artem Markelov48
14Julian Leal38
15Sergio Canamasas27
16Nathanael Berthon24
17Robert Visoiu20
18Norman Nato20
19Nick Yelloly19
20Oliver Rowland3
21Andre Negrao3
22Rene Binder2
23Daniel de Jong1
24Dean Stoneman1
25Gustav Malja1
26Marlon Stockinger0
27Nicholas Latifi0
28Johnny Cecotto Jr.0
29Zoel Amberg0
30Sean Gelael0
31Simon Trummer0
32Jon Lancaster0
33Marco Sorensen0
34Patric Niederhauser0
35Jann Mardenborough0

Evans takes second GP2 win of the season in Bahrain Sprint

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