Felipe Nasr scored his first victory in the GP2 Series in Sunday morning’s sprint race at Barcelona, his 50th start in the category.
Carlin racer Nasr, who made a fantastic start from sixth on the grid, passed poleman Tom Dillmann’s Arden car on lap two to take the lead that he would not relinquish until the chequered flag.
Points leader Jolyon Palmer, following an early clash with Rio Haryanto, took the fight to Nasr in his DAMS car, after passing Dillmann with an audacious move at Turn 7 on lap five. Palmer chased down Nasr, and stayed with him for the first half of the race, before Nasr pulled away.
Palmer came back at him in the closing stages, but a big lock-up at Turn 1 sent him across the run-off, and he dropped back to finish 7.6s behind the Brazilian. “I had a really long brake [pedal] at the end,” said Palmer, who extended his points lead to 22 points.
Dillmann finished third, having been a last-minute call-up for Arden, just holding off a charging Arthur Pic. Julian Leal finished fifth, ahead of yesterday’s winner Johnny Cecotto Jr.
Mitch Evans had run sixth, having charged up from 14th on the grid, but rooted his tyres and tumbled back to the tail of the field.
Results - 26 laps:
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Felipe Nasr Carlin 42m01.901s
2. Jolyon Palmer DAMS +7.635s
3. Tom Dillmann Arden +13.814s
4. Arthur Pic Campos +14.172s
5. Julian Leal Carlin +14.732s
6. Johnny Cecotto Trident +18.842s
7. Stephane Richelmi DAMS +19.236s
8. Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering +22.993s
9. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Rapax +30.744s
10. Stoffel Vandoorne ART +31.379s
11. Tio Ellinas MP +31.839s
12. Daniel Abt Hilmer +32.142s
13. Takuya Izawa ART +33.313s
14. Alexander Rossi Caterham +34.189s
15. Kimiya Sato Campos +37.025s
16. Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering +38.689s
17. Facu Regalia Hilmer +39.975s
18. Sergio Canamasas Trident +44.122s
19. Daniel de Jong MP +1m14.656s
20. Mitch Evans Russian Time +2 laps
Retirements:
Rio Haryanto Caterham 2 laps
Artem Markelov Russian Time 2 laps
Simon Trummer Rapax 2 laps
Rene Binder Arden 1 lap
Conor Daly Lazarus 1 lap
Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 0 laps
