Luiz Razia wins GP2 season opener in Malaysia
Luiz Razia opened his fourth GP2 season with a race victory in Malaysia, as a slow start left Sepang polesitter Davide Valsecchi to settle for second
Brazilian driver Razia's win was his first since the 2009 Monza sprint race, and his Arden team's first triumph since the 2010 series opener.
Razia led from the outset after Valsecchi (DAMS) got away slowly from pole and slipped to fourth behind Racing Engineering's Fabio Leimer and Coloni's Stefano Coletti.
It did not take long for Valsecchi to make progress, as he benefited from Coletti running wide on lap five, then put a bold move on Leimer into Turn 1 next time around.
But catching Razia proved harder. Although there was a spell going into the final third of the race when Valsecchi was lapping up to a second faster than his 2011 AirAsia team-mate in the race lead, the gap stabilised at five seconds and ultimately Razia managed to edge away again.
Max Chilton jumped to third in the pitstops and then held off Leimer to give Carlin its maiden GP2 podium.
Close behind, Coletti beat leading rookie Felipe Nasr (DAMS) to sixth, as Lotus' Esteban Gutierrez recovered well from his difficult qualifying day to come through to seventh.
Eighth place and reverse grid pole went to Gutierrez's Lotus team-mate Calado, who won a late battle with slow-starter Giedo van der Garde (Caterham). Fabrizio Crestani completed the top 10 for Lazarus on its GP2 debut, fending off a charging Nathanael Berthon (Racing Engineering).
Top 10 qualifier Jolyon Palmer stalled his iSport car on the grid, as did Rapax's Tom Dillmann, prompted an extra formation lap and leaving Palmer only 17th at the finish.
Nigel Melker's race was ruined by an early drive-through penalty, issued because his Ocean mechanics were still on the grid when the '15 second' board was raised before the formation lap. He finished 18th.
Stephane Richelmi and Simon Trummer, meanwhile, both had 20s added to their race times for causing collisions. The penalties dropped both drivers two spots, with Trident's Richelmi falling to 19th and Arden man Trummer to 23rd.
Results - 30 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Luiz Razia Arden 56m00.250s 2. Davide Valsecchi DAMS + 7.817s 3. Max Chilton Carlin + 27.366s 4. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering + 28.291s 5. Stefano Coletti Coloni + 32.217s 6. Felipe Nasr DAMS + 33.378s 7. Esteban Gutierrez Lotus + 33.679s 8. James Calado Lotus + 36.449s 9. Giedo van der Garde Caterham + 41.519s 10. Fabrizio Crestani Lazarus + 43.240s 11. Nathanael Berthon Racing Engineering + 43.720s 12. Rio Haryanto Carlin + 53.303s 13. Marcus Ericsson iSport + 1m01.683s 14. Josef Kral Addax + 1m02.683s 15. Julian Leal Trident + 1m09.180s 16. Nigel Melker Ocean + 1m10.399s 17. Jolyon Palmer iSport + 1m12.861s 18. Tom Dillmann Rapax + 1m27.810s 19. Stephane Richelmi Trident + 1m35.206s* 20. Fabio Onidi Coloni + 1m39.125s 21. Ricardo Teixeira Rapax + 1m48.025s 22. Giancarlo Serenelli Lazarus + 1 lap 21. Simon Trummer Arden + 1 lap* Did not finish: Rodolfo Gonzalez Caterham 13 laps Johnny Cecotto Jr Addax 7 laps Jon Lancaster Ocean 1 lap *20s added to race time
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
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