Marco Sorensen secured his and MP Motorsport’s first ever GP2 Series victory as he lead the Sprint race in Russia from start to finish on Sunday morning.
The Dane beat Stoffel Vandoorne to top spot, with the Belgian unable to mount a challenge in the final couple of laps after a safety period to clear up the crashed Racing Engineering machine of Raffaele Marciello.
Sorensen got the perfect start to lead into the first corner, while Vandoorne straight-lined turn two but conceded second place back to Sergio Canamasas before tracking the Spaniard but was unable to overtake. Canamasas was on course for second, but was forced to retire his Trident Racing machine on the thirteenth lap with a mechanical issue, gifting Vandoorne second place.
Carlin driver Felipe Nasr had a good race to move from seventeenth on the grid to complete the podium, taking advantage of the safety car to pass Mitch Evans of Russian Time, while Arthur Pic of Campos Racing got the better of Andre Negrao of Arden International to take fifth.
Kimiya Sato finally secured his first points of the season with seventh for Campos Racing, while Stefano Coletti scored the final point for Racing Engineering despite starting on the back row of the grid.
Pierre Gasly was on course for his first points since joining Caterham Racing but a failed attempt to pass Negrao for sixth saw the Frenchman, who is a part of the Red Bull Racing Junior team, run wide and lose momentum and saw Gasly drop outside the points.
Marciello’s crash that saw the safety car deployed was caused by a puncture he received while attempting to pass the second Russian Time machine of Artem Markelov. The Italian lost control of his car and hit the barriers, breaking his front suspension.
Newly crowned GP2 Series champion Jolyon Palmer failed to score points for the first time in 2014, but nether-the-less the DAMS driver had a strong race after being half spun at turn two on the opening lap and falling to the back of the field. He managed to recover and finished tenth, only a couple of seconds away from the points.
Sochi Sprint Race Result
POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/Laps |
1 | Marco Sorensen | DEN | MP Motorsport | 40m19.905s |
2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | BEL | ART Grand Prix | +1.302s |
3 | Felipe Nasr | BRZ | Carlin | +1.969s |
4 | Mitch Evans | NZL | RT Russian Time | +3.282s |
5 | Arthur Pic | FRA | Campos Racing | +4.109s |
6 | Andre Negrao | BRZ | Arden International | +5.841s |
7 | Kimiya Sato | JAP | Campos Racing | +7.143s |
8 | Stefano Coletti | MON | Racing Engineering | +9.027s |
9 | Nathanael Berthon | FRA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | +11.038s |
10 | Jolyon Palmer | GBR | DAMS | +11.582s |
11 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Caterham Racing | +12.310s |
12 | Artem Markelov | RUS | RT Russian Time | +13.221s |
13 | Daniel Abt | GER | Hilmer Motorsport | +13.771s |
14 | Tio Ellinas | CYP | Rapax | +14.443s |
15 | Rio Haryanto | INO | Caterham Racing | +14.744s |
16 | Jon Lancaster | GBR | Hilmer Motorsport | +15.173s |
17 | Julian Leal | COL | Carlin | +15.502s |
18 | Stephane Richelmi | MON | DAMS | +15.944s |
19 | Daniel de Jong | NED | MP Motorsport | +16.589s |
20 | Sergio Campana | ITA | Venezuela GP Lazarus | +18.454s |
21 | Takuya Izawa | JAP | ART Grand Prix | +18.669s |
22 | Simon Trummer | SWI | Rapax | +26.281s |
23/RET | Johnny Cecotto Jr | VEN | Trident Racing | +2 Laps |
RET | Raffaele Marciello | ITA | Racing Engineering | 16 Laps |
RET | Sergio Canamasas | ESP | Trident Racing | 12 Laps |
RET | Rene Binder | AUT | Arden International | 2 Laps |