Luiz Razia won the GP2 Series sprint race at Silverstone to extend his points lead over championship rival Davide Valsecchi, who finished second.
Polesitter Giedo van der Garde held the lead off the line, while second-placed starter Valsecchi was passed by his own DAMS teammate Felipe Nasr for second. The Italian was then passed by Razia for third around the outside of Stowe later on the opening lap.
Razia then passed Nasr at Brooklands before setting after van der Garde for the lead and repeating his move around the outside of Stowe.
Nasr got past van der Garde for second place on lap three and then started putting pressure on his fellow Brazilian Razia. After running behind him for a few laps, Nasr made a brave dive under braking at Village to get ahead but ran wide on the exit, allowing Razia back through.
Nasr’s challenge faded after that, and he began to be caught by Valsecchi behind and was passed on lap 14. Valsecchi reeled Razia in but was unable to do anything about the Arden International man who scored his fourth win of the season by 5.6 seconds.
Nasr finished third and take his second podium of the season, but had both Esteban Gutierrez and Johnny Cecotto on his tail in the closing stages. Gutierrez had passed Cecotto for fourth with two laps to go but lost the place again when he ran wide. They went side-by-side again heading down to Stowe on the last lap, which led to Gutierrez ran wide. As he tried to rejoin at speed he lost control of the car on the wet astroturf, causing him to swerve right and into Cecotto, who was sent crashing out in the direction of the pitlane.
Gutierrez survived with a broken front wing to cross the line fourth, but could yet be penalised. Jolyon Palmer completed a good weekend on home soil with a fifth place after his podium in the feature race, but had to recover from a poor start that saw him drop from sixth on the grid to 13th by the end of the last lap. He got by Nigel Melker on the penultimate lap, demoting the Dutchman to sixth.
Marcus Ericsson drove his way up the order to finish seventh after starting 21st. James Calado was following the Swede through the field, but a brave move into Maggotts on Max Chilton led to Calado getting loose and going off, with contact with Chilton also ending his race. Fabio Onidi inherited eighth ahead of Fabio Leimer and Josef Kral.
