Romain Grosjean has strengthened his lead in the GP2 Series standings with a fine victory in the sprint race at Silverstone. The DAMS driver moved through the field from fifth on the grid, passing Dani Clos for the lead and going on to win winning by seven seconds.
At the start of the race front row starter Stefano Coletti stalled, allowing Racing Engineering driver Clos into second place behind polesitter Giedo van der Garde. The Spaniard then took the lead from the Dutchman at The Loop, while Grosjean took third place from Sam Bird behind.
The order at the front remained the same until Grosjean found his way past van der Garde on lap 14. Just up the road, Clos locked up at Brooklands and went off. This allowed Grosjean to close right up, and the Frenchman took the lead at Copse on the following lap.
From there Grosjean opened up a lead of seven seconds to take a commanding victory, his third of the season. Clos held onto second place from van der Garde.
Christian Vietoris had moved ahead of Marcus Ericsson at the start to run fifth behind Bird, but he would drop back in the second half of the race. Ericsson took fifth place back on lap 14, the Swede then chasing after iSport teammate Bird, passing the home favourite for fourth place on lap 18.
Feature race winner Jules Bianchi took sixth place from Vietoris on lap 16, going on to pass Bird before the end to finish in fifth.
Grosjean's strong weekend has allowed him to move into a nine point lead at the head of the standings over van der Garde. Bird lies a further six points behind. Davide Valsecchi and Charles Pic both failed to score any points from the weekend, leaving them 17 and 23 points off the lead respectively.
The next round takes place at the Nurburgring in support of the German Grand Prix on 23-24 July.
Sprint race results – 21 laps:
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Time/Gap |
| 1 | Romain Grosjean | DAMS | 36:42.650 |
| 2 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 7.019 |
| 3 | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 7.760 |
| 4 | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 8.433 |
| 5 | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 9.427 |
| 6 | Sam Bird | iSport International | 12.924 |
| 7 | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | 20.853 |
| 8 | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 21.888 |
| 9 | Alvaro Parente | Carlin | 22.128 |
| 10 | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 23.154 |
| 11 | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 23.296 |
| 12 | Luca Filippi | Super Nova Racing | 23.624 |
| 13 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 31.357 |
| 14 | Luiz Razia | Caterham Team AirAsia | 32.330 |
| 15 | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 32.780 |
| 16 | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 33.447 |
| 17 | Davide Valsecchi | Caterham Team AirAsia | 34.778 |
| 18 | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | 38.139 |
| 19 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 39.168 |
| 20 | Josef Kral | Arden International | 40.754 |
| 21 | Julian Leal | Rapax | 85.700 |
| 22 | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | +1 lap |
| 23 | Pal Varhaug | DAMS | +1 lap |
| Ret | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Technology | 10 laps |
| Ret | Kevin Ceccon | Scuderia Coloni | 6 laps |
Drivers' standings after five of nine rounds:
1. Romain Grosjean, 47 points
2. Giedo van der Garde, 38
3. Sam Bird, 32
4. Davide Valsecchi, 30
5. Charles Pic, 24
6. Dani Clos, 24
