GP2 Series
Catalunya, Race 1
The feature race in Barcelona was one of the absolute highlights of the GP2 season. It produced a first-time winner in Robin Frijns and a load of action throughout the field, which even inspired the winner of the following day?s Spanish Grand Prix.
In just his second weekend in the series, Frijns took advantage of an early pitstop while running sixth to effectively take the lead when pole-sitter Marcus Ericsson hit trouble in slower traffic.
Felipe Nasr charged from eighth to second in the closing stages, finishing three seconds behind Frijns. Jolyon Palmer spent much of the race defending from Sam Bird, even once Nasr had worked his way past the pair of them. Bird tried to follow the Brazilian past Palmer, but ended up being forced wide into the gravel and retiring.
Palmer kept hold of third until the stewards room post-race, when he was penalised for his move on Bird. That allowed Jon Lancaster to take third in his first race of the season, after charging up the order in the closing stages. Stefano Coletti finished fourth, ahead of Tom Dillmann who was another to make up ground late on.
The Frenchman was 13th after changing for a second set of hard compound tyres, and was delayed in his attempts to rise through the field when Stephane Richelmi barged him into the gravel at turn four. He recovered up to fourth, courtesy of some stunning overtaking moves, only to lose a couple of spots when he tried to pass Palmer for third. Still, his moves around the outside of turn three in particular caught the attention of Fernando Alonso, who credited the GP2 drivers when he made similar moves on his way to victory on the Sunday.
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