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GP2 Bahrain: McLaren F1 junior Stoffel Vandoorne wins race one

McLaren Formula 1 junior Stoffel Vandoorne claimed a last-gasp victory in the GP2 season opener after passing Alexander Rossi for the lead on the penultimate lap

The ART driver started from pole position and held the lead at the start ahead of Alex Lynn.

But an early safety car, triggered by a clash involving four cars, transformed the race.

The incident was caused by Norman Nato turning in on Marciello at the same time as tapping the rear of third-placed Arthur Pic.

That contact led to all three, as well as the luckless Red Bull Junior Pierre Gasly's machine, needing to be recovered.

Under the safety car, those who had started on the quicker, but less durable, soft-compound Pirellis dived for the pits while those on mediums, including leader Vandoorne, stayed out.

While the leading drivers pressed on to try and build a pitstop's advantage over as many cars as possible, with Rio Haryanto chasing Vandoorne, Rossi was the best-placed of those who had pitted ahead of Lynn and Mitch Evans.

Rossi made rapid progress to climb the order in traffic, meaning that he was certain to take the lead when Vandoorne finally stopped, but Lynn's challenge started to unravel when he tapped the back of the American's Racing Engineering entry while in traffic at Turn 1 and suffered front wing damage.

This left Rossi in the clear and he took the lead when Vandoorne finally stopped at the end of lap 22.

But Vandoorne showed prodigious pace on fresh softs, lapping as much as four seconds quicker than Rossi and charging up the order.

He took second place from rookie Jordan King, who had made great progress after losing time during the safety car pitstops thanks to having to queue up behind team-mate Rossi, with five laps remaining.

Vandoorne then carved into Rossi's lead, taking the lead just after the DRS zone on the back straight on the penultimate lap and pulling away to win by five seconds.

Haryanto, who pitted shortly after Vandoorne, used fresh softs to great effect to charge through to second, passing Rossi on the run to the final corner.

This left Rossi to lead home King for a Racing Engineering three-four finish.

Robert Visoiu, driving for Rapax, came through to fifth ahead of the second ART entry of Nobuharu Matsushita.

But the Japanese, who started second but plummeted into the midfield after a terrible getaway, was penalised five seconds for 'driving erratically' and relegated to 10th at the chequered flag.

This allowed Evans to take sixth ahead of Nathanael Berthon and Carlin's Julian Leal, the latter securing reversed grid pole position thanks to getting ahead of Andre Negrao, who was struggling on very old rubber, on the final lap.

RESULTS - 32 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Gap
1 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1h01m23.306s
2 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 5.056s
3 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 5.497s
4 Jordan King Racing Engineering 12.322s
5 Robert Visoiu Rapax 20.048s
6 Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 25.543s
7 Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 27.729s
8 Julian Leal Carlin 28.463s
9 Andre Negrao Arden International 29.502s
10 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 29.664s
11 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 36.875s
12 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 38.516s
13 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 41.021s
14 Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport 41.391s
15 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 43.375s
16 Zoel Amberg Lazarus 44.062s
17 Rene Binder Trident 44.682s
18 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 48.421s
19 Alex Lynn DAMS 1m05.572s
- Raffaele Marciello Trident Retirement
- Norman Nato Arden International Retirement
- Arthur Pic Campos Racing Retirement
- Pierre Gasly DAMS Retirement
- Marco Sorensen Carlin Retirement

RACE TWO STARTING GRID:

Pos Driver Team
1 Julian Leal Carlin
2 Nathanael Berthon Lazarus
3 Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME
4 Robert Visoiu Rapax
5 Jordan King Racing Engineering
6 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering
7 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing
8 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix
9 Andre Negrao Arden International
10 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix
11 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix
12 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax
13 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME
14 Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport
15 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix
16 Zoel Amberg Lazarus
17 Rene Binder Trident
18 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport
19 Alex Lynn DAMS
20 Raffaele Marciello Trident
21 Pierre Gasly DAMS
22 Marco Sorensen Carlin
23 Arthur Pic Campos Racing
24 Norman Nato Arden International

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