2016 Catalunya GP2 Series round

2016 GP2 race held in Spain Spain Catalunya 1 11 Formula1 Circuit Catalunya.svg Layout of the Circuit de Catalunya 2016 Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló, Spain Permanent racing facility 2.892 4.665 14 May 33 FRA Pierre Gasly Prema Racing 1:27.807 FRA Norman Nato Racing Engineering CAN Nicholas Latifi DAMS FRA Pierre Gasly Prema Racing FRA Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:34.050 28 15 May 26 GBR Alex Lynn DAMS FRA Pierre Gasly Prema Racing GBR Jordan King Racing Engineering FRA Pierre Gasly Prema Racing 1:33.263 6 The 2016 Catalunya GP2 Series round was a GP2 Series motor race on 14 and 15 May 2016 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain. It was the first round of the 2016 GP2 Series. The race weekend supported the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. Background The defending champions for GP2, Stoffel Vandoorne, were unable to defend their respective titles due to the ruling which forbids driver champions from returning to the series. Vandoorne remained as a McLaren reserve and test driver, where he stood in for the injured Fernando Alonso at the Bahrain Grand Prix, while also racing in the Super Formula series in Japan. Classification Qualifying A dramatic qualifying session saw Pierre Gasly take his first pole position of the season, his third in a row dating back to last season, and the fourth in his GP2 career. It was also the first pole position for Prema Racing, which they scored on their debut in the GP2 Series. Norman Nato grabbed his best-ever qualifying position in GP2 with a strong second place, with Alex Lynn behind in third. Pos. Position No. Car number Driver Team Time Grid Final grid position 1 21 FRA Pierre Gasly Prema Racing 1:27.807 1 2 3 FRA Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:28.271 2 3 5 GBR Alex Lynn DAMS 1:28.458 3 4 6 CAN Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:28.563 4 5 2 RUS Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:28.655 5 6 11 SWE Gustav Malja Rapax 1:28.695 6 7 22 GBR Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:28.807 7 8 1 JPN Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:29.128 111 1 9 10 RUS Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:29.129 8 10 15 ITA Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:29.143 9 11 20 ITA Antonio Giovinazzi Prema Racing 1:29.163 10 12 9 ITA Raffaele Marciello Russian Time 1:29.274 12 13 4 GBR Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:29.322 13 14 12 FRA Arthur Pic Rapax 1:29.385 14 15 18 ESP Sergio Canamasas Carlin 1:29.397 15 16 19 DEU Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 1:29.440 16 17 23 NED Daniël de Jong MP Motorsport 1:29.464 17 18 7 NZL Mitch Evans Pertamina Campos Racing 1:29.478 18 19 25 SWE Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:29.942 19 20 24 MYS Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:30.254 20 21 8 INA Sean Gelael Pertamina Campos Racing 1:30.304 222 2 22 14 INA Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:30.609 21 Source:GP2 Series 2016 Results - Spain http://www.gp2series.com:80/Results/?raceid=961&seasonid=173 https://web.archive.org/web/20160520043032/http://www.gp2series.com/Results/?raceid=961&seasonid=173 GP2 Series GP2 Motorsport Limited 2016-05-20 27 May 2016 live 1.1 – Matsushita received a three-place grid penalty for impeding a rival during the qualifying session.Penalties for Matsushita and Gelael http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2016/May/Penalties-for-Matsushita-and-Gelael-/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160514115739/http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2016/May/Penalties-for-Matsushita-and-Gelael-/ GP2 Series GP2 Motorsport Limited 13 May 2016 14 May 2016 27 May 2016 2.2 – Gelael received a three-place grid penalty for impeding a rival during the qualifying session. However, since he was unable to serve his penalty in full, Gelael started from the pitlane. Feature Race Pierre Gasly got a good getaway from pole position, followed by Nato and the fast-starting ART car of Sergey Sirotkin. However, the safety car was called out when rookie Luca Ghiotto crashed at Turn 3. The restart on Lap 5 saw no positional changes up front. Soft-shod Alex Lynn and Jordan King started the pit stop cycle, but Gasly's blistering pace out front eradicated any potential strategic advantage. The battle for second raged on, with Nato holding off a charging Sirotkin. But Sirotkin's race quickly unravelled when he spun in Turn 2 on Lap 23 and stalled the engine, a rare mistake from the Russian driver. The safety car came out once again while Sirotkin's stricken car was retrieved. This proved advantageous for the drivers on the hard tyre, as they were awarded a "free" pit stop under the safety car. As such, Gasly, Nato, Nicholas Latifi, and Sergio Canamasas all emerged in front of Lynn. The race restarted again on Lap 26, and this time, there were moves aplenty. Artem Markelov jumped ahead of both Lynn and King for P5, before Nato made a brave race-winning move in the final complex of corners to take the lead. Shortly after, the race became time-certain, which spurred on drivers to make more moves. Latifi passed Gasly on Lap 33 to claim second, while Markelov continued his charge to the front by deposing Canamasas for fourth. The race ended under a bizarre set of circumstances: Prema Racing's Antonio Giovinazzi clattered into the back of Raffaele Marciello on Lap 34, sending him into the Turn 4 gravel. The safety car came out for the third time, with time running out just before the field crossed the line. Under GP2 rules, there is always one lap after the time runs out, but despite this rule, the checkered flag was accidentally waved one lap too early. Because of race control's gaffe, the results were rolled back to one lap before, which annulled the accident between Marciello and Giovinazzi. However, Giovinazzi was still awarded a twenty-second time penalty which relegated him to an 18th-place finish. Pos. Position No. Car number Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 FRA Norman Nato Racing Engineering 33 58:51.044 2 25 (2) 2 6 CAN Nicholas Latifi DAMS 33 +1:337 4 18 3 21 FRA Pierre Gasly Prema Racing 33 +4.248 1 15 (4) 4 10 RUS Artem Markelov Russian Time 33 +5.145 8 12 5 18 ESP Sergio Canamasas Carlin 33 +7.294 15 10 6 5 GBR Alex Lynn DAMS 33 +7.596 3 8 7 4 GBR Jordan King Racing Engineering 33 +8.678 13 6 8 9 ITA Raffaele Marciello Russian Time 33 +11.544 12 4 9 11 SWE Gustav Malja Rapax 33 +13.102 6 2 10 22 GBR Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 33 +17.513 7 1 11 1 JPN Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 33 +18.526 11 12 7 NZL Mitch Evans Pertamina Campos Racing 33 +21.773 18 13 12 FRA Arthur Pic Rapax 33 +23.022 14 14 23 NED Daniël de Jong MP Motorsport 33 +23.787 17 15 19 DEU Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 33 +24.125 16 16 25 SWE Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 33 +24.348 19 17 8 INA Sean Gelael Pertamina Campos Racing 33 +27.522 PL 18 20 ITA Antonio Giovinazzi Prema Racing 32 +1 Lap 10 19 24 MYS Nabil Jeffri Arden International 32 +1 Lap 20 Ret 14 INA Philo Paz Armand Trident 28 Mechanical 21 Ret 2 RUS Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 23 Spun off 5 Ret 15 ITA Luca Ghiotto Trident 0 Accident 9 Fastest lap: FRA Norman Nato (Racing Engineering) – 1:34.050 (on lap 28) Source: Sprint Race Reverse-grid polesitter Raffaele Marciello got a clean start, holding off Jordan King into the first corner, but Alex Lynn got a great start from third and passed King into turn 2. It took Lynn merely two laps to catch and sail past Marciello, setting the Briton up for a dominant drive to victory. Behind him, Marciello plummeted to fourth, being passed by King and Pierre Gasly in quick succession. Gasly then overtook King for second on Lap 6 and set off in pursuit of his former teammate. Positions remained at the front of the field, but it was all change in the middle of the pack. Sergey Sirotkin and Luca Ghiotto chewed through almost half the field from their last-row starting positions. The intense midfield battle came to an abrupt end on Lap 21, when Sean Gelael aggressively blocked Antonio Giovinazzi on the back straight, but Giovinazzi was already partially alongside the Indonesian driver. He was launched over Gelael's left-rear wheel and slid down the remainder of the straight, collecting an innocent Arthur Pic in Turn 10. Giovinazzi hurtled towards the barriers at unabated speed, skipping across the gravel before slamming the tyre wall side-on. He climbed out of his car visibly shaken, but otherwise uninjured, which was positive news after such a violent impact. The safety car was deployed, but a lengthy clean-up meant that it could only be recalled on the final lap. As a result, Lynn was able to take a second consecutive Spanish sprint race victory, while Gasly, King, Artem Markelov, Marciello, Oliver Rowland, Nicholas Latifi, and Nobuharu Matsushita also claimed points. Pos. Position No. Car number Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 GBR Alex Lynn DAMS 26 43:50.241 3 15 2 21 FRA Pierre Gasly Prema Racing 26 +0.377 6 12 (2) 3 4 GBR Jordan King Racing Engineering 26 +1.120 2 10 4 10 RUS Artem Markelov Russian Time 26 +2.168 5 8 5 9 ITA Raffaele Marciello Russian Time 26 +3.382 1 6 6 22 GBR Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 26 +3.990 10 4 7 6 CAN Nicholas Latifi DAMS 26 +4.584 7 2 8 1 JPN Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 26 +5.647 11 1 9 18 ESP Sergio Canamasas Carlin 26 +8.115 4 10 11 SWE Gustav Malja Rapax 26 +8.419 9 11 2 RUS Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 26 +8.698 21 12 15 ITA Luca Ghiotto Trident 26 +8.828 22 13 8 INA Sean Gelael Pertamina Campos Racing 26 +9.178 17 14 7 NZL Mitch Evans Pertamina Campos Racing 26 +9.650 12 15 19 DEU Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 26 +10.152 15 16 3 FRA Norman Nato Racing Engineering 26 +10.430 8 17 23 NED Daniël de Jong MP Motorsport 26 +10.726 14 18 24 MYS Nabil Jeffri Arden International 26 +11.672 19 19 25 SWE Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 25 +1 Lap 16 Ret 12 FRA Arthur Pic Rapax 20 Collision 13 Ret 20 ITA Antonio Giovinazzi Prema Racing 20 Accident 18 Ret 14 INA Philo Paz Armand Trident 13 Retired 20 Fastest lap: FRA Pierre Gasly (Prema Racing) – 1:33.263 (on lap 6) Source: Standings after the round Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 10px 1 FRA Pierre Gasly 33 10px 2 FRA Norman Nato 27 10px 3 GBR Alex Lynn 23 10px 4 CAN Nicholas Latifi 20 10px 5 RUS Artem Markelov 20 Teams' Championship standings Pos Team Points 10px 1 FRA DAMS 43 10px 2 ESP Racing Engineering 43 10px 3 ITA Prema Racing 31 10px 4 RUS Russian Time 30 10px 5 GBR Carlin 10 Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. See also 2016 Spanish Grand Prix 2016 Catalunya GP3 Series round References External links Official website of GP2 Series Catalunya GP2 round 2016 2015 Yas Marina GP2 Series round 2016 Monaco GP2 Series round 2015 Catalunya GP2 Series round 2017 Barcelona Formula 2 round GP2 Catalunya Catalunya