Leimer triumphs in second race
Fabio Leimer bounced back from having to start last for the first GP2 race of the weekend by winning the second race at Barcelona
The Rapax driver had climbed from 26th to ninth in Saturday's race, and he inherited eighth place and therefore pole position for race two when Romain Grosjean was excluded after his car failed a ride height test.
Leimer then made a good start while fellow front row man Jules Bianchi (ART) dropped back. Bianchi did not even make Turn 1 as he moved across on Addax's Giedo van der Garde, leading to a spectacular collision that forced both to retire.
After the inevitable safety car period, Leimer set about slowly easing away from Racing Engineering driver Dani Clos in second. By the end, the Swiss driver's lead was up to 10 seconds.
Clos had a lonely race to second, while iSport's Marcus Ericsson just held on to take third from a charging Davide Valsecchi (AirAsia). The Italian had been under pressure from Trident's Stefano Coletti in the early part of the race, but his car came good in the closing stages, enabling him to snatch fourth from Sam Bird (iSport) three laps from the end before hunting down Ericsson.
Bird had to settle for fifth, while Fairuz Fauzy took the final point for Super Nova after Coletti and Arden's Josef Kral collided at Turn 1 on the penultimate lap.
There were late race heroics from Grosjean after he made a quiet start to the race from the back of the grid. He was only running 19th with seven laps to go, but he then took advantage of looking after his tyres to storm through the field. He was ninth by the end, and it could have been eighth were it not for some fierce defensive driving from his DAMS team-mate Pal Varhaug.
Results - 26 laps:
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Fabio Leimer Rapax 45m26.885s
2. Dani Clos Racing Engineering + 10.190s
3. Marcus Ericsson iSport + 20.711s
4. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia + 20.926s
5. Sam Bird iSport + 27.339s
6. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova + 38.974s
7. Alvaro Parente Racing Engineering + 40.280s
8. Pal Varhaug DAMS + 41.855s
9. Romain Grosjean DAMS + 41.925s
10. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident + 51.503s
11. Max Chilton Carlin + 52.553s
12. Esteban Gutierrez ART + 1m02.219s
13. Johnny Cecotto Ocean + 1m03.298s
14. Julian Leal Rapax + 1m03.416s
15. Kevin Ceccon Coloni + 1m03.604s
16. Kevin Mirocha Ocean + 1m04.895s
17. Jolyon Palmer Arden + 1m05.099s
18. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin + 1m19.938s
19. Charles Pic Addax + 1m26.905s
Retirements:
Stefano Coletti Trident 24 laps
Josef Kral Arden 24 laps
Luiz Razia AirAsia 22 laps
Luca Filippi Super Nova 21 laps
Michael Herck Coloni 12 laps
Jules Bianchi ART 0 laps
Giedo van der Garde Addax 0 laps
Share Or Save This Story
F1 2019 game includes official driver transfers for first time
F1 testing: Toro Rosso's Albon on top, Mercedes starts to show pace
Michael Schumacher's top 10 F1 victories
What’s going on at Aston Martin – and how does the team find a way out of its hole?
BTCC Donington Park: Rowbottom gives Plato’s team a debut win after Ingram penalty
Watch live: Nurburgring 24 Hours Qualifiers – Verstappen in action in Race 1
WEC Imola: Giovinazzi snatches pole for Ferrari
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments