Spa GP2: James Calado claims first win of 2013 for himself and ART
James Calado scored his first race win of the 2013 GP2 Series at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday
The ART driver held off Racing Engineering's Julian Leal by just 0.4 seconds.
Calado, who had a fresh set of prime tyres available for this race by dint of starting on the soft on Saturday, streaked into an early lead from pole position. By lap five, he was three seconds clear and looked to be cruising to victory.
But Leal began to make inroads into his advantage, and by lap 12 the gap was under a second.
In the closing stages, Calado had to keep a wary eye on Leal, who was never quite close enough to make a passing move but would have pounced if Calado made a mistake.
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs also joined the lead battle in the closing stages, but asked a little too much of his tyres with a few laps to go and could not quite get on terms with Leal.
Stephane Richelmi was a very distant fourth, ahead of Fabio Leimer and Jolyon Palmer.
Johnny Cecotto Jr took seventh from Tom Dillmann with a couple of laps remaining, while Dani Clos should have been in the mix for points, but was given his second drive-through penalty of the weekend for a collision.
Results - 18 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. James Calado ART 36m21.388s 2. Julian Leal Racing Engineering +0.447s 3. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Hilmer +1.532s 4. Stephane Richelmi DAMS +17.905s 5. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering +29.053s 6. Jolyon Palmer Carlin +33.284s 7. Johnny Cecotto Jr MW Arden +37.321s 8. Tom Dillmann Russian Time +40.052s 9. Felipe Nasr Carlin +40.455s 10. Mitch Evans MW Arden +43.421s 11. Simon Trummer Rapax +44.373s 12. Sergio Canamasas Caterham +45.170s 13. Nathanael Berthon Trident +45.987s 14. Sam Bird Russian Time +47.459s 15. Marcus Ericsson DAMS +50.141s 16. Daniel Abt ART +50.726s 17. Daniel de Jong MP +50.818s 18. Vittorio Ghirelli Lazarus +53.466s 19. Dani Clos MP +54.532s 20. Rene Binder Lazarus +59.796s 21. Jake Rosenzweig Addax +1m03.052s 22. Alexander Rossi Caterham +1m18.035s 23. Stefano Coletti Rapax +1m21.639s 24. Ricardo Teixeira Trident +1m27.956s 25. Rio Haryanto Addax +1 lap Retirements: Robin Frijns Hilmer 1 lap
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