Silverstone GP2: Evans beats Palmer to win feature race
Mitch Evans scored his maiden GP2 victory at Silverstone in Saturday's feature race, winning for the Russian Time team
Kiwi Evans, who is Mark Webber's protege, undercut long-time leader Jolyon Palmer of DAMS during the mandatory pitstop cycle.
They had duelled early in the race too, with Evans getting ahead of Palmer on the opening lap, only for the Briton to repass him on lap four.
Palmer and Evans traded fastest laps throughout, and Evans was 1.3s behind when Palmer pitted on lap 19.
A massive push from Evans before he pitted on the following lap meant he rejoined ahead, but he had to hold off Palmer with some stern defensive driving on cold tyres.
Palmer lunged him around the outside of both Brooklands and Luffield, but he ran out of track at the latter and went wide over the Astroturf.
Evans went on to win by 4.9s, and admitted: "We've been waiting too long for this, it feels nice!"
ART's Stoffel Vandoorne was a distant third, inheriting the final podium position after early leader Raffaele Marciello (Racing Engineering) retired with a technical failure at half distance and Carlin's Felipe Nasr suffered a slow pitstop.
A thrilling battle for fourth was taken by Julian Leal, who battled back from an abysmal start to pass Stefano Coletti around the outside of Stowe on the final lap. They touched there and again at Club, but Leal held on to the position.
Nasr finished in their wheeltracks in sixth, and is now 45 points behind Palmer.
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
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