GP2 Hockenheim: Alex Lynn claims second victory of 2016
Williams Formula 1 test driver Alex Lynn reinvigorated his GP2 season with his second victory of 2016 at Hockenheim
In his wake, Saturday winner Sergey Sirotkin battled through to second and claimed the points lead from Pierre Gasly - despite the Red Bull protege charging from the back of the grid to sixth.
Lynn shot into the lead at the start as poleman Antonio Giovinazzi made a slow getaway.
Though MP Motorsport driver Oliver Rowland put pressure on DAMS racer Lynn on several occasions early on, the leader was ultimately able to break away and Rowland had to focus on defending second.
Giovinazzi picked up a five-second time penalty for forcing Arthur Pic off the track on the run to the first corner, and was in a hurry to get past Rowland for second.
His efforts to do so ended in contact in the complex before the stadium section at half-distance and Giovinazzi retired in the gravel.
That put Gustav Malja onto Rowland's tail - the Rapax driver having caught a massive fishtailing slide on the pits straight as he tried to get between Rowland and Giovinazzi off the line - but Sirotkin had the best pace in this growing pack.
After despatching Malja, the Russian Renault F1 test driver spent lap after lap trying to get through Rowland's defences before finally securing second.
With Malja also losing performance, it was his Rapax team-mate Pic who came through to score his first podium of the year, with Luca Ghiotto pushing Rowland back to fifth.
Having controversially lost third place on Saturday due to his on-board fire extinguisher emptying itself during the race, Gasly immediately surged from 20th to 14th on lap one.
A collision between Norman Nato and Nabil Jeffri ahead handed him two more places, and he then made assertive progress through the upper midfield to claim sixth ahead of Raffaele Marciello.
That leaves Sirotkin and Gasly tied at the head of the championship, but with the Russian getting the nod on countback.
Artem Markelov surged through the field on fresh tyres after a mid-race pitstop and reached eighth on the road, only for a time penalty for pitlane speeding to drop him back to ninth between Malja and fellow pitstopper Mitch Evans.
RESULTS - 27 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 43m20.504s |
2 | Sergey Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 2.922s |
3 | Arthur Pic | Rapax | 4.688s |
4 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | 6.206s |
5 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 8.187s |
6 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 8.486s |
7 | Raffaele Marciello | RUSSIAN TIME | 9.259s |
8 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 10.292s |
9 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 14.404s |
10 | Mitch Evans | Pertamina Campos Racing | 15.162s |
11 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 16.727s |
12 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 21.319s |
13 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 25.154s |
14 | Marvin Kirchhofer | Carlin | 25.292s |
15 | Rene Binder | Carlin | 25.768s |
16 | Daniel de Jong | MP Motorsport | 34.778s |
17 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 41.617s |
18 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1 Lap |
19 | Sean Gelael | Pertamina Campos Racing | 3 Laps |
- | Philo Paz Armand | Trident | Retirement |
- | Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | Retirement |
- | Nabil Jeffri | Arden International | Retirement |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Sergey Sirotkin | 113 |
2 | Pierre Gasly | 113 |
3 | Raffaele Marciello | 102 |
4 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 100 |
5 | Oliver Rowland | 99 |
6 | Norman Nato | 81 |
7 | Jordan King | 80 |
8 | Mitch Evans | 77 |
9 | Alex Lynn | 72 |
10 | Artem Markelov | 65 |
11 | Luca Ghiotto | 64 |
12 | Nobuharu Matsushita | 58 |
13 | Arthur Pic | 36 |
14 | Sean Gelael | 24 |
15 | Nicholas Latifi | 21 |
16 | Marvin Kirchhofer | 20 |
17 | Sergio Canamasas | 14 |
18 | Gustav Malja | 12 |
19 | Jimmy Eriksson | 10 |
20 | Daniel de Jong | 6 |
21 | Nabil Jeffri | 2 |
22 | Rene Binder | 0 |
23 | Philo Paz Armand | 0 |
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