Red Bull Ring GP2: Cecotto wins thrilling sprint race for Trident
Johnny Cecotto Jr won round eight of the GP2 Series at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday morning, holding off Stefano Coletti by 0.742s in a thrilling race
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
Share Or Save This Story
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him” before Hamlin clash
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
How IMSA's GTP revival proved worthy of its name
Renger van der Zande and Meyer Shank Racing win Long Beach IMSA race
Driver dies following multi-car crash in Nürburgring 24h Qualifiers race
What’s going on at Aston Martin – and how does the team find a way out of its hole?
BTCC Donington Park: Rowbottom gives Plato’s team a debut win after Ingram penalty
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