GP2, Silverstone : Race 1 results
Pastor Maldonado’s run of good form continued with an emphatic win in today’s GP2 Series feature race at Silverstone.
The Rapax driver jumped polesitter Jules Bianchi (ART) at the start and never looked threatened from there on, gradually extending his advantage to win by 10.1 seconds. Bianchi was second ahead of Racing Engineering’s Dani Clos, who came home a further 9.4s down the road.
It was a largely processional affair through most the field, with Bianchi’s ART team-mate Sam Bird having an equally straightforward run to fourth, although Sergio Perez and Christian Vietoris did their best to inject some interest with their scrap for fifth over the second half of the race. Addax driver Perez finally found a way past the German Racing Engineering man with two laps to go, although sixth was still a good reward for Vietoris after starting from 12th on the grid.
iSport’s Davide Valsecchi and Oliver Turvey were able to mop up the remaining points when Addax’s Giedo van der Garde made a mistake on the final lap while running fifth, allowing Valescchi to pass him immediately and Turvey to follow a couple of corners later. The latter will start his home race from pole tomorrow.
Only two cars failed to make the finish, with Rapax’s Luiz Razia pulling off the track mid-way through the race, and DAMS’ Ho-Pin Tung retiring after several visits to the pits. Tung had started the race in a brand-new, unliveried chassis that was rushed through scrutineering this morning after destroying his race car in a trip over the kerbs during Friday practice.
