Frenchman Tom Dillmann will start the GP2 Series sprint Race on pole position after his Arden International team-mate Rene Binder was penalised for overtaking under a yellow flag during the feature race. The 20-second post-race penalty has seen the Austrian drop out of the points from his seventh place to fifteenth.
Dillmann, who is only driving in Spain because usual driver Andre Negrao is injured, had originally finished the feature race in ninth position and moves up to the eighth position that guarantees the Sunday morning sprint race pole. It also moves MP Motorsport’s Tio Ellinas down to second on the grid having moved up from his original eighth place finish to seventh.
Binder was not the only driver to suffer a post-race penalty; Racing Engineering’s Stefano Coletti was also handed a 20-second penalty for the same yellow flag offence, as was Conor Daly of Venezuela GP Lazarus. Coletti had finished 12th on the road on Saturday but drops now to 16th, while Daly was 17th and drops two places to 19th.
MP Motorsport’s Daniel de Jong will be forced to start the sprint race from the pit lane after incurring a ten-place grid drop penalty after his team failed to secure a wheel on properly before releasing him back onto the track. Because there are not enough drivers behind the Dutchman for him to receive the full punishment, he will therefore have to start from the pit lane.
The penalty for Binder also means Rapax driver Adrian Quaife-Hobbs moves up from tenth to ninth place and DAMS driver Stephane Richelmi from eleventh to tenth despite stalling on the dummy grid before the race began.
