James Calado wins GP2 sprint race at Hockenheim for Lotus
James Calado won the GP2 Series sprint race at Hockenheim on Sunday morning, dominating the event from pole position for Lotus GP
He defeated Giedo van der Garde of Caterham by 7.9 seconds after leading from lights to flag, a great recovery from a weekend that he began with a 10-place grid penalty for a collision with Max Chilton at Silverstone. It was his second victory of the season, and brings him back into the fringes of the title fight in fifth place.
"It's a good win for me, as I've had some bad luck recently and lost some points," said Calado. "To get back to the front, where I belong, and winning races again is a privilege.
"The car was unbelievable; the speed was unreal. It's good to be back in contention again."
Felipe Nasr finished a distant third for DAMS, holding off the early challenge of Racing Engineering's Fabio Leimer. Nasr had grabbed second from van der Garde at Turn 2 on the opening lap, but ran wide at the Mercedes Arena and the Dutchman snatched the position back just as the safety car was released to neutralise the race to recover the conjoined cars of Tom Dillmann and Max Chilton.
They had collided in response to points leader Luiz Razia spinning at the Spitzkehre hairpin. Razia had already run wide at the first corner, losing loads of places from his front-row starting slot, and was challenging Leimer when he got on the kerb and spun all on his own. He recovered to finish 12th.
Title rival Davide Valsecchi (DAMS) fared little better, and also spun at Spitzkehre after the slightest of taps from Jolyon Palmer. He finished out of the points in ninth, but could gain two points if Palmer and Stefano Coletti (who finished seventh and eighth) get pinged for passing Josef Kral under yellow flags.
They were out due to Giancarlo Serenelli's huge shunt at the Agipkurve, from which he staggered away.
Leimer held off a late attack from Esteban Gutierrez (Lotus) to finish fourth. Yesterday's winner Johnny Cecotto Jr was sixth, the Venezuelan snookered into running on softer option tyres as he'd used up all his favoured primes yesterday. He had briefly run fourth, passing Leimer at Turn 2 on lap 11, but Leimer immediately repassed him and Gutierrez further demoted him seconds later.
Results - 27 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. James Calado Lotus 40m18.134s 2. Giedo van der Garde Caterham + 7.962s 3. Felipe Nasr DAMS + 17.509s 4. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering + 21.962s 5. Esteban Gutierrez Lotus + 22.353s 6. Johnny Cecotto Jr Addax + 33.193s 7. Jolyon Palmer iSport + 33.235s 8. Stefano Coletti Coloni + 34.660s 9. Davide Valsecchi DAMS + 38.870s 10. Nigel Melker Ocean + 41.861s 11. Nathanael Berthon Racing Engineering + 42.196s 12. Luiz Razia Arden + 42.442s 13. Rio Haryanto Carlin + 42.959s 14. Julian Leal Trident + 43.336s 15. Josef Kral Addax + 43.580s 16. Sergio Canamasas Lazarus + 44.111s 17. Marcus Ericsson iSport + 46.002s 18. Ricardo Teixeira Rapax + 46.683s 19. Simon Trummer Arden + 47.624s 20. Rodolfo Gonzalez Caterham + 56.315s 21. Stephane Richelmi Trident + 1m02.778s 22. Fabio Onidi Coloni + 1m13.439s 23. Victor Guerin Ocean + 1 lap Retirements: Giancarlo Serenelli Lazarus 18 laps Tom Dillmann Rapax 0 laps Max Chilton Carlin 0 laps
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