Home Formula 2 Lancaster claims first GP2 win in Silverstone sprint

Lancaster claims first GP2 win in Silverstone sprint

by Peter Allen
Jon Lancaster

Photo: Malcolm Griffiths/GP2 Series Media Service

Jon Lancaster scored a dominant maiden GP2 win on home soil in the sprint race at Silverstone.

In only his fourth weekend of GP2 racing and his third this year, the British driver got an almighty launch from fourth on the grid to lead into the first corner.

His early advantage was wiped out by a safety car called on lap three but he was untroubled after the restart and took the chequered flag with a margin of 6.5 seconds.

“Before Barcelona it’s basically been over a year not driving, doing a little bit of stuff here or there but not racing so to come back at the third weekend, already had a podium and to win the first race at home, you can’t ask for any better really,” he explained on the podium.

Rio Haryanto held second place throughout to record his first podium in GP2. James Calado made a good start from eighth on the grid to get up into third place but lacked the pace to challenge Haryanto and instead had to sustain pressure from Julian Leal, who lost out after starting on pole.

Feature race winner Sam Bird got past his Russian Time team-mate Tom Dillmann late on to claim fifth, with Dillmann somehow holding on to sixth just ahead of Felipe Nasr, who charged from the back row of the grid. Marcus Ericsson took the final point in eighth ahead of Alexander Rossi, another to come from the back.

Stefano Coletti failed to score again in tenth but retains his points lead.

Race results
Pos. Driver Team Time/Gap
1 Jon Lancaster Hilmer Motorsport 21 laps in 37:19.528
2 Rio Haryanto Barwa Addax Team 6.513
3 James Calado ART Grand Prix 7.922
4 Julian Leal Racing Engineering 8.420
5 Sam Bird Russian Time 9.348
6 Tom Dillmann Russian Time 14.563
7 Felipe Nasr Carlin 14.671
8 Marcus Ericsson DAMS 15.321
9 Alexander Rossi Caterham Racing 15.877
10 Stefano Coletti Rapax 18.789
11 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs MP Motorsport 23.855
12 Kevin Ceccon Trident Racing 32.021
13 Rene Binder Venezuela GP Lazarus 34.933
14 Mitchell Evans Arden International 35.673
15 Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 35.861
16 Simon Trummer Rapax 37.838
17 Fabrizio Crestani Venezuela GP Lazarus 41.133
18 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 51.728
19 Stephane Richelmi DAMS 1:25.181
20 Sergio Canamasas Caterham Racing +1 lap
21 Jake Rosenzweig Barwa Addax Team +2 laps
Not classified
Jolyon Palmer Carlin +8 laps
Johnny Cecotto Arden International +13 laps
Robin Frijns Hilmer Motorsport +15 laps
Nathanael Berthon Trident Racing +18 laps
Daniel Abt ART Grand Prix +19 laps