Norman Nato completed the podium in Saturday’s GP2 Series Feature race at the Sepang International Circuit after making a good strategy call by making an early pit stop.
The Racing Engineering driver was able to extend his advantage over Alex Lynn during the pit stop cycle, and although he ended the race running at a faster pace than second placed Sergey Sirotkin, he was too far away from the Russian to be able to make a proper attack for second.
“First of all I had a good start,” said Nato. “We missed a bit of pace on the Option tyres at the start of the race so we decided to pit early to try the undercut and it worked as I increased the gap on Lynn.
“After the pit stop the pace was not good enough to follow Sirotkin and [Antonio] Giovinazzi, but it got better after few laps and I started to catch Sirotkin but it was too late.”
Unfortunately for Nato and for Racing Engineering, the Frenchman was eliminated early in Sunday’s Sprint race after a turn two collision with team-mate Jordan King, who was penalised with a ten-second time penalty for the incident. Nato believed he could have fought for the race win but instead found himself facing the wrong way down the track and out of the race.
“There isn’t a lot to say about today’s race,” said Nato. “The start was OK and I was in P5 before the accident. It’s a shame as I think we could have fought for the win today. It’s a shame.”
