Wednesday, August 27, 2014

GP2 Series 2014 at SPA




What an amazing weekend for the guys of GP2!

Race 1 takes place on Saturday, a very unpredictable Saturday due to the weather conditions.
The race starts wet, with Vandoorne pulling out the best start. It takes only seconds and the rain starts coming down very heavily. Behind the Belgian driver, everybody else is lost in a cloud. Upon the very few clear things to highlight from the mist, Palmer is in eight position and Marciello puts up a blinded show picking up several positions. But the rain is just too much and on the second lap Daly goes out, followed in order by the yellow flag, the safety car and, a lap later, the red flag.
Race is suspended in the hope of a sudden change of conditions.
The weather turns just a little lenient after about 20 minutes and the race restarts. This time Ceccotto takes the lead, followed by Vandoorne and Marciello but he goes wide later on.
It takes a bunch of laps for the drivers to get the confidence to start trying some moves and on lap 9 Marciello passes Ceccotto for the second position.
The award for the best overtake of the day (and probably not only) goes to Markelov that goes around Dillmann on lap 11.
Another couple of laps and it's time for a pit stop for most of the drivers. The leader Vandoorne goes in on lap 17 and Marciello, waiting another two laps, chops the gap from 4.6 to 2.6 secs. The two are in another race, lapping many times between 2 and 3 seconds faster than everybody else and with only 3 laps to go Marciello takes the lead that will give him his first victory in GP2.

It's Sunday morning and it's time for Race 2. the track is almost dry but not enough to not to think about it, especially in the several fast corners around the mighty SPA. Abt and Markelov fill the first row, Palmer starts from third.
At the lights is Nasr that gets the better traction, even with a minimal "jump and stop" a couple tenths of a second before the start. Palmer goes wide in the first turn, rejoining the track a bunch of positions back.
Marciello and Markelov get too close at the end of the Kemmel straight and, while the first spins and finds himself in P24, the second retires the car some laps further in the race.
Vandoorne, second in Race 1, sits in seventh position.
The whole race sees Ceccotto chasing Nasr, with the gap between the two fluctuating within a couple seconds. It won't be enough for Ceccotto that will finish in second place behind Nasr, with Palmer joining them on the podium after keeping the door close on the faster Evans.
To be mentioned the amazing comeback of Coletti, 24th on the grid and 7th under the checkered flag. On a race without interruption this is quite of an inpressive result.

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