Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Leimer beats Razia to sprint win

Fabio Leimer survived a late push from Luiz Razia to win today's GP2 Series sprint race at Barcelona

The Swiss driver, who was making his series debut this weekend, started from pole and opened a gap of as much as 4.3 seconds during the middle part of the race.

But Razia came back at him over the closing laps, and crossed the line just 0.7s in arrears. It was the second-ever win for the Ocean Racing squad, while third for Razia's team-mate Pastor Maldonado secured a two-three for Rapax.

The race was fairly processional at the front, but there was more competition for the minor points placings. ART's Sam Bird echoed his overtaking masterclass of the day before with another excellent performance, the Briton climbing from ninth to fourth, and he could potentially have challenged for third were it not a late excursion into the gravel that cost him six seconds.

Oliver Turvey held on to fifth despite lapping around 1.5s off the pace in an unco-operative iSport car, leading a train of cars behind him headed by a frustrated Dani Clos (Racing Engineering).

Once again it was a difficult day for some of the series favourites, with Jules Bianchi finishing 12th after banging wheels with Giedo van der Garde and sliding off the track, while Sergio Perez was unable to make the start after the engine in his Barwa Addax Dallara blew on the formation lap.

There could be more bad news ahead for the Mexican, who is facing a post-race investigation for trailing oil around the racing line on two thirds of the lap before finally pulling over, forcing the start to be delayed by 10 minutes while powder was laid down.

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  Fabio Leimer         Ocean                38m31.849s
 2.  Luiz Razia           Rapax                  + 0.755s
 3.  Pastor Maldonado     Rapax                  + 4.850s
 4.  Sam Bird             ART                   + 14.274s
 5.  Oliver Turvey        iSport                + 26.785s
 6.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering    + 27.433s
 7.  Charles Pic          Arden                 + 28.459s
 8.  Giacomo Ricci        DPR                   + 29.077s
 9.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax                 + 29.889s
10.  Ho-Pin Tung          DAMS                  + 31.323s
11.  Davide Valsecchi     iSport                + 39.228s
12.  Jules Bianchi        ART                   + 39.564s
13.  Jerome D'Ambrosio    DAMS                  + 39.661s
14.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Arden                 + 51.383s
15.  Adrian Zaugg         Trident               + 51.971s
16.  Max Chilton          Ocean                 + 52.473s
17.  Johnny Cecotto       Trident               + 53.489s
18.  Christian Vietoris   Racing Engineering    + 54.129s
19.  Josef Kral           Super Nova            + 54.772s
20.  Vlado Arabadjiev     Coloni                + 56.388s
21.  Michael Herck        DPR                 + 1m06.461s

Retirements:

     Marcus Ericsson      Super Nova          2 laps
     Sergio Perez         Addax               0 laps
     Alberto Valerio      Coloni              0 laps

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Pic wins eventful season opener
Next article Maldonado fastest in first practice

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe