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Coletti gambles for sprint victory

Monegasque bet on slicks at wet start pays for win

Stefano Coletti

Stefano Coletti

GP2 Media Service

Stefano Coletti
Stefano Coletti
Marco Sorensen
Stefano Coletti
Stefano Coletti
Felipe Nasr
Stefano Coletti
Podium: race winner Felipe Nasr, second place Stefano Coletti, third place Johnny Cecotto
Jon Lancaster
Polesitter Jolyon Palmer, second place Stoffel Vandoorne, third place Stefano Coletti
Stoffel Vandoorne
Podium: race winner Felipe Nasr, second place Stefano Coletti, third place Johnny Cecotto
Marco Sorensen
Stefano Coletti rolled the dice when a brief but fierce downpour just before this morning’s sprint race threw everyone’s race plans out the window: with the track still wet, the conservative choice was to start on wet tyres, but the Monegasque driver and the Williams tester Felipe Nasr were among the few drivers to take a gamble on slicks, one which paid well when the pair finished 1-2 ahead of McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne.
 
At the start the advantage was heavily towards the conservative choice: poleman Nathanaël Berthon easily took the start with the rest of the top 4, including Nasr, struggling to get off the line: Coletti had a comparatively good start but was still swamped as Jolyon Palmer, Mitch Evans and Marco Sorensen stormed past, with Palmer slightly wide at turn one and dropping behind the pair as Johnny Cecotto and Stéphane Richelmi came together: the latter’s car caught fire, prompting a safety car period.
 
Evans made short work of Berthon at the restart but was clearly on the wrong set up: the New Zealander was unable to do anything to stop Vandoorne at the hairpin next time round and, dropping 2 seconds a lap, soon fell back threw the field. But with the track drying out the question was which lap should they come in? Palmer opened the door by coming in on lap 10, just before Coletti claimed the fastest lap to make it clear that the time was now.
 
A safety car for a beached Takuya Izawa gave teammate Vandoorne a perfect window to pop in for slicks, emerging with Sorensen just behind the last wet tyre stragglers on track, who disappeared as the race went live: Coletti was just behind the pair at the restart and made the most of his warmer tyres, and familiarity with the conditions, to blast into the lead next time round, with Nasr following suit on the next lap.
 
For the remainder of the race Coletti and Nasr had a private battle for the win, with the pair swapping fastest laps between them, but the Monegasque driver held the gap of just over a second all the way to the finish line, with Vandoorne the best placed of the wet tyre starters rounding out the podium. Another fine performance from Sorensen saw him finish P4, ahead of a fierce fight between Jon Lancaster, Palmer and Alexander Rossi, with Adrian Quaife-Hobbs claiming the final points position behind them.
 
Palmer still holds the lead in the drivers’ championship on 168 points to Nasr’s 127, with Cecotto on 100, Coletti moving up to 96, Evans on 92 and Vandoorne on 86 points, while in the teams’ championship DAMS lead on 209 points to Carlin on 193 points. Racing Engineering are third on 125 points, three more than Trident ahead of next week’s round at the Hungaroring.

Hockenheim – Sprint Race
 

 

Driver

Team

 1.

Stefano Coletti

Racing Engineering

 2.

Felipe Nasr

Carlin

 3.

Stoffel Vandoorne

ART Grand Prix

 4.

Marco Sorensen

MP Motorsport

 5.

Jon Lancaster

Hilmer Motorsport

 6.

Jolyon Palmer

DAMS

 7.

Alexander Rossi

Campos Racing

 8.

A. Quaife-Hobbs

Rapax

 9.

Tom Dillmann

EQ8 Caterham Racing

 10.

Rio Haryanto

EQ8 Caterham Racing

 11.

Mitch Evans

RT RUSSIAN TIME

 12.

Artem Markelov

RT RUSSIAN TIME

 13.

Sergio Canamasas

Trident

 14.

Simon Trummer

Rapax

 15.

Daniel Abt

Hilmer Motorsport

 16.

Daniel De Jong

MP Motorsport

 17.

N. Berthon

Venezuela GP Lazarus

 18.

Julian Leal

Carlin

 19.

Takuya Izawa

ART Grand Prix

 20.

Conor Daly

Venezuela GP Lazarus

 21.

André Negrao

Arden International

 22.

Rene Binder

Arden International

 

 

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