Luca Filippi charges to Spa race two win for Coloni
Luca Filippi won a thrilling second GP2 race of the weekend at Spa
The Italian worked his way from fifth to second in the opening six laps, picking off Dani Clos, Fairuz Fauzy and the fast-starting (11th to second) Johnny Cecotto Jr with moves at Les Combes.
He was making inroads into Josef Kral's lead when the safety car came out, after Fabio Leimer (Rapax) had a nasty-looking crash at Eau Rouge.
Filippi (Coloni) then passed Arden driver Kral at Les Combes after the restart, and from there he was able to pull away while the rest of the field went into battle behind him.
Romain Grosjean, Dani Clos and Jules Bianchi picked off Fauzy's Super Nova car when the Malaysian went wide after attacking Cecotto (Ocean) at Les Combes.
As Cecotto fought to keep DAMS driver Grosjean at bay, that allowed Clos (Racing Engineering) and Bianchi (ART) to challenge. Clos got past the new champion out of La Source, while Bianchi got a run on both to pull off a stunning three-abreast pass into Eau Rouge.
From there, Bianchi picked off Cecotto, before passing Kral for second on the penultimate lap.
Cecotto slipped out of contention in the closing laps, while Grosjean got back ahead of Clos and held on to fourth to the end.
The Spaniard had to look in his mirrors from there, as Sam Bird was completing a charge from 12th on the grid for iSport. The Briton passed Clos with three laps to go, to keep himself in contention in a five-way fight for the runner-up spot in the title race.
Results - 18 laps:
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Luca Filippi Coloni 39m34.834s
2. Jules Bianchi ART + 4.476s
3. Josef Kral Arden + 6.857s
4. Romain Grosjean DAMS + 7.685s
5. Sam Bird iSport + 8.993s
6. Dani Clos Racing Engineering + 12.952s
7. Esteban Gutierrez ART + 14.364s
8. Johnny Cecotto Ocean + 19.360s
9. Brendon Hartley Ocean + 19.634s
10. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia + 20.192s
11. Adam Carroll Super Nova + 21.472s
12. Marcus Ericsson iSport + 22.033s
13. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering + 22.348s
14. Jolyon Palmer Arden + 22.917s
15. Michael Herck Coloni + 23.672s
16. Max Chilton Carlin + 27.960s
17. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident + 28.510s
18. Pal Varhaug DAMS + 28.540s
19. Charles Pic Addax + 28.853s
20. Giedo van der Garde Addax + 29.374s
21. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova + 59.072s
Retirements:
Julian Leal Rapax 13 laps
Mikhail Aleshin Carlin 13 laps
Luiz Razia AirAsia 12 laps
Fabio Leimer Rapax 7 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
Supercars to make Chevrolet Camaro updates after parity investigation
Domenicali: F1 'needs to decide' on the next engine regulations this year
How Armstrong has proven he belongs in the WRC's top tier
The top 11 lost F1 victories after the flag
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