Wickens wins opening F2 race

He took an easy lead at the start when he made a swift getaway while fellow front row starter Tobias Hegewald bogged down, and he was never really challenged.

Andy Soucek slotted into second off the line and looked for a while as though he might threaten Wickens, but the Canadian broke his charge after just eight laps and Soucek began to fade.

Wickens eased away at a steady three tenths per lap until an incident between Soucek and Hegewald brought out the safety car. Soucek's car slowed and came to a halt at the exit of the right-hand kink at Turn 14. Carlos Iaconelli and Hegewald, running third and fourth, arrived on the scene blind and Hegewald struck the back of Soucek's car, eliminating both.

The restart raised no dramas for Wickens and he continued as before, stretching away from the pack.

"The whole race for me was just tyre conservation," said Wickens. "I made a pretty good start and maintained P1. Andy kept the pressure on in the opening laps but I pushed quite hard and once I'd built a gap I could just focus on consistency and keeping the car in one piece, and nurse it to the finish."

Iaconelli was left with second place, while Kazim Vasiliauskas completed the podium. The Lithuanian had made a great start to jump from ninth to fifth on the opening lap and then profited from the misfortunes of Soucek and Hegewald.

Mikhail Aleshin held onto fourth place following a dogged scrap for the lower reaches of the top six. The Russian tried to pass Vasiliauskas at the restart but lost momentum as the pack bottle-necked into Turn 1. He was in turn challenged by Julien Jousse, but he managed to force the Frenchman to the outside of Turn 2, allowing Philipp Eng to steal his place.

Aleshin then came under strong pressure from Eng himself after dropping a wheel into the gravel at Turn 13, but he survived a run down the main straight and held onto fourth. Eng let fifth slip away on the last lap when he spun at Turn 2 while under pressure from Jousse.

Mirko Bortolotti completed the top six, climbing quietly up from his sixth row starting spot.

Pos Driver                            Gap
 1. Robert Wickens             37m03.621s
 2. Carlos Iaconelli               +3.870
 3. Kazim Vasiliauskas             +5.241
 4. Mikhail Aleshin                +8.554
 5. Julien Jousse                  +9.922
 6. Mirko Bortolotti              +10.904
 7. Henry Surtees                 +11.319
 8. Alex Brundle                  +12.326
 9. Nicola de Marco               +12.913
10. Sebastian Hohenthal           +13.976
11. Natacha Gachnang              +14.982
12. Philipp Eng                   +17.675
13. Jack Clarke                   +17.916
14. German Sanchez                +17.994
15. Armaan Ebrahim                +18.942
16. Jason Moore                   +20.724
17. Henri Karjalainen             +22.076
18. Jens Hoing                    +25.218
19. Tom Gladdis                   +27.296
20. Pietro Gandolfi               +37.711
21. Jolyon Palmer                 +48.195

Retirements

    Andy Soucek                   14 laps
    Tobias Hegewald               14 laps
    Milos Pavlovic                 4 laps
    Edoardo Piscopo                3 laps


Fastest lap, Wickens 1:29.166