Red Bull Ring GP2: Cecotto wins thrilling sprint race for Trident

Trident racer Cecotto leapt into the lead from the second row at the start as poleman Alexander Rossi (Caterham) and fellow front-row man Mitch Evans (Russian Time) made awful getaways.

Cecotto's first rival for victory was Rossi, who hounded him over the opening five laps. But Rossi fell back into the clutches of a charging Raffaele Marciello, who had ended the opening lap in fourth but battled past Racing Engineering team-mate Coletti at Turn 3 on lap two.

Marciello then passed Rossi for second at Turn 2 on lap seven, and closed right up to leader Cecotto. Despite harrying him for several laps, Marciello's tyres went off, and he fell back.

Coletti, meanwhile, passed Rossi for third around the outside of Turn 3 on lap 17, and then repassed Marciello for second two laps later.

Cecotto's three-second lead quickly evaporated as Coletti slashed the gap, but he just could not find a way past.

"Not enough laps, I tried," said Coletti on his in-lap.

Marciello clung to third, despite a couple of ambitious lunges from Evans in the closing stages. Rossi finished fifth.

It was Cecotto's second win of the season and puts him third in the points race. Series leader Jolyon Palmer, who finished sixth, extended his lead over Felipe Nasr to 33 points. Nasr was an early retirement with a clutch problem.

Carlin's Julian Leal was seventh, after being shoved into the Turn 2 run-off by Palmer on lap 20 after they had swapped positions a number of times. Takuya Izawa rounded out the point scorers.

Result - 28 laps

Pos Driver               Team                    Time/Gap
 1. Johnny Cecotto Jr    Trident                 36m14.395s
 2. Stefano Coletti      Racing Engineering      +0.742s
 3. Raffaele Marciello   Racing Engineering      +6.813s
 4. Mitch Evans          Russian Time            +7.139s
 5. Alexander Rossi      Caterham                +7.990s
 6. Jolyon Palmer        DAMS                    +8.828s
 7. Julian Leal          Carlin                  +9.317s
 8. Takuya Izawa         ART                     +19.410s
 9. Sergio Canamasas     Trident                 +26.716s
10. Stephane Richelmi    DAMS                    +27.062s
11. Conor Daly           Lazarus                 +27.625s
12. Rene Binder          Arden                   +28.381s
13. Arthur Pic           Campos                  +28.861s
14. Andre Negrao         Arden                   +30.084s
15. Stoffel Vandoorne    ART                     +30.446s
16. Artem Markelov       Russian Time            +32.025s
17. Rio Haryanto         Caterham                +36.046s
18. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Rapax                   +37.139s
19. Kimiya Sato          Campos                  +37.901s
20. Simon Trummer        Rapax                   +42.508s
21. Daniel de Jong       MP                      +43.754s
22. Tio Ellinas          MP                      +45.236s
23. Daniel Abt           Hilmer                  +45.606s
24. Facu Regalia         Hilmer                  +46.924s
25. Nathanael Berthon    Lazarus                 +50.361s

Retirements

    Felipe Nasr          Carlin                  2 laps