Coletti dominates sprint race in Barcelona

Coletti dominates sprint race in Barcelona…
 
Monegasque driver extends points lead
 
Stefano Coletti has claimed his second win of the season with a mature drive after a storming start for a dominant victory in today’s sprint race in Barcelona, controlling the pace all the way to lead home Robin Frijns and Felipe Nasr.
 
The win was set up at the start: poleman Johnny Cecotto made a decent getaway but Coletti’s was even better, getting alongside the front man ahead of turn one before going all the way round the outside for the lead. Behind them Tom Dillmann stalled, but Frijns snuck inside while his rivals tripped over each other, giving the Dutchman a clear run to the first corner.
 
Cecotto tried in vain to fight back but Coletti had the measure of the Venezuelan, who lost grip for just long enough to allow Frijns and Nasr to blow by, while Jolyon Palmer, Alexander Rossi, a slow starting Kevin Ceccon and Rio Haryanto slid in behind.
 
With everyone needing to concentrate on maintaining their tyres to the end of the race most of the field were content to keep their powder dry and wait for their rivals to make a mistake: eventually the damage to Cecotto’s car showed as a train formed behind him, and it was only a matter of time before he dropped back.
 
Palmer’s pressure finally paid off and he was through on lap 20, although the Venezuelan damaged his front wing against the Briton’s right rear tyre, slowing him further: Ceccon tried the same move but ran wide, Rossi locked up going inside Cecotto at turn one and allowed Haryanto through, with Sergio Canamasas and Daniel Abt thrown into the mix with just two laps remaining.
 
The Spaniard looked to have a clear run on Cecotto but had the door slam shut: with a slowing Canamasas on one side of the track and a squeezed Abt on the other, Haryanto had nowhere to go but over the Spaniard’s rear wing, the second time in the weekend Canamasas had to retire without it, while seemingly half of the field were tripping over each other to find a way to the line.
 
Out in front Coletti had eased his pace from a gap of over 4 seconds to lead home yesterday’s victor Frijns by 0.6 seconds at the line, with Nasr on the podium again 7 seconds behind them. Palmer had a quiet run to fourth place, with Cecotto the next man to see the chequered flag just ahead of Rossi, Ceccon, Abt and Fabio Leimer.
 
The win saw Coletti stretch his points haul to 93, ahead of Nasr on 76 points, Leimer on 54, Frijns moving up to 37 points with Sam Bird on 33 and Palmer on 31, while in the teams’ championship Carlin lead Rapax by 107 points to 101, ahead of Racing Engineering on 64, Hilmer Motorsport moving up to fourth with 56 points, one point ahead of RUSSIAN
Barcelona – Sprint race
Driver
Team
1.
Stefano Coletti
Rapax
2.
Robin Frijns
Hilmer Motorsport
3.
Felipe Nasr
Carlin
4.
Jolyon Palmer
Carlin
5.
Johnny Cecotto
Arden International
6.
Alexander Rossi
Caterham Racing
7.
Kevin Ceccon
Trident Racing
8.
Daniel Abt
ART Grand Prix
9.
Fabio Leimer
Racing Engineering
10.
Jon Lancaster
Hilmer Motorsport
11.
James Calado
ART Grand Prix
12.
Sam Bird
RUSSIAN TIME
13.
Mitch Evans
Arden International
14.
Sergio Canamasas
Caterham Racing
15.
Stéphane Richelmi
DAMS
16.
Simon Trummer
Rapax
17.
Kevin Giovesi
Venezuela GP Lazarus
18.
Daniel De Jong
MP Motorsport
19.
Rene Binder
Venezuela GP Lazarus
20.
Marcus Ericsson
DAMS
21.
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
MP Motorsport
22.
Jake Rosenzweig
Barwa Addax Team
23.
Nathanaël Berthon
Trident Racing
24.
Rio Haryanto
Barwa Addax Team
25.
Julian Leal
Racing Engineering
26.
Tom Dillmann
RUSSIAN TIME
Fastest Lap : Tom Dillmann (RUSSIAN) – 1:33.337 on lap 14