In stark contrast to the fiery Monaco GP2 feature race in which Mitch Evans finished second, the Saturday race was a subdued sprint. Virtually nothing changed in the race order from start to finish.
New Zealand’s Mitch Evans started seventh in his Russian Time entry and finished sixth to earn a double helping of points at the Monte Carlo third round. He held off overall series leader Jolyon Palmer for the entire race.
“I couldn’t do much in this one. It was a ‘follow the leader’ race,” said Evans. “After a good result on Friday, I was happy to take another three points and call it a weekend.”
Local driver Stephane Richelmi led the high-speed procession through the streets of the principality from start to finish. With no mandatory pit stop in the shorter Saturday sprint race, everyone started on the soft compound Pirelli tyres.
The reverse grid order for the top eight finishers from Saturday made little difference and there was little shuffling of the order right through the 26 car field after the first lap at the season’s shortest and slowest Grand Prix circuit.
Richelmi just held off Rio Haryanto at the first corner, with Haryanto getting squeezed wide at Sainte Devote allowing Sergio Canamasas to slip through into second on the exit.
Further back, Evans reckoned he got an even better launch than he did in the feature race – “but I couldn’t use it.” The gap between the two cars ahead of him narrowed and Evans was forced to swing from the right to the left as the pack funnelled into St.Devote.
“I got almost alongside Johnny Cecotto going up the hill but the track was too narrow and he got around me. At the top of the hill I passed Felipe Nasir when he had a problem but after that I was just trying to manage the front tyre wear.”
The order at the end of the first lap was Richelmi, Canamasas, Haryanto, Cecotto, Arthur Pic, Evans and Palmer – and that’s how they finished 30 laps later in the sixth race of the 22-race season.
Last night’s race was interrupted briefly by a safety car after Evans’s Russian team mate Artem Markelov slammed heavily into the barrier at Ste Devote, dislodging a chunk of the Tecpro barrier but the race order and the gaps were quickly restored.
Canamasas kept Richelmi under pressure, staying less than a second behind throughout the race, When Canamasas straight-lined the Nouvelle Chicane at two-thirds distance, the Spaniard was able to close up again. Then Richelmi pulled out a two-second lead in the closing stages to record his debut win after three years in GP2.
Haryanto finished over six second behind Canamasas while Johnny Cecotto Jr finished a very distant fourth, holding off a huge train that saw most of the field running nose-to- tail.
Cecotto was lapping up to two seconds slower than the leaders and in the closing stages the cars queued behind the Venezulian, – right back to 21st – were covered by just 10 seconds.
“I could have dive bombed Pic during the race but it was just too risky. I was happy to score points and get another finish at Monaco.” said Evans.
He went into the weekend 16th in the overall points with just two points from the opening round in Malaysia; and came out of this third round with another 22pts which has moved the 19-year-old up to ninth in the standings.
The fourth round of the 11-round GP2 Series will be at the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull circuit on June 20-22.
