Tom Dillmann takes maiden GP2 victory in Bahrain sprint
Tom Dillmann claimed his maiden GP2 win with a faultless drive in the Sakhir sprint race
The Rapax driver inherited pole when DAMS' Felipe Nasr picked up a penalty after Friday's feature race, and Dillmann made the most of his good fortune. He made a perfect start, held the lead into the first corner and then set about eking out an advantage.
Initially iSport's Marcus Ericson gave chase, but as happened in the feature the Swede was unable to build upon an excellent start and he was soon passed by Arden's Luis Razia.
In the closing stages the Brazilian started to take sizeable chunks out of Dillman's lead, but the Frenchman had just enough of an advantage to hold on.
Davide Valsecchi fell two places short of making GP2 history by winning four races on the bounce. The DAMS star was delayed when Caterham's Giedo van der Garde was tipped into a spin by Lotus's Esteban Gutierrez at the first corner of the opening lap and then spent too long finding a way by the ailing Ericsson, who had damaged his front wing when he hit an errant polystyrene brake marker board.
Gutierrez made up for a terrible performance by Lotus in the feature event by holding on to fourth, ahead of Carlin's on-form Rio Haryanto. Nasr worked his way up to sixth while Ericsson clung on to seventh.
Racing Engineering's Fabio Leimer claimed the final point after a last-lap pass on Coloni's Fabio Onidi.
Results - 23 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Tom Dillmann Rapax 41m16.276s 2. Luiz Razia Arden + 0.198s 3. Davide Valsecchi DAMS + 3.958s 4. Esteban Gutierrez Lotus + 16.488s 5. Felipe Nasr DAMS + 18.602s 6. Rio Haryanto Carlin + 20.425s 7. Marcus Ericsson iSport + 26.294s 8. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering + 29.605s 9. Fabio Onidi Coloni + 33.490s 10. Nathanael Berthon Racing Engineering + 34.078s 11. Nigel Melker Ocean + 43.463s 12. James Calado Lotus + 44.371s 13. Max Chilton Carlin + 46.743s 14. Julian Leal Trident + 47.439s 15. Rodolfo Gonzalez Caterham + 54.991s 16. Brendon Hartley Ocean + 59.764s 17. Stephane Richelmi Trident + 1m00.655s 18. Stefano Coletti Coloni + 1m02.090s 19. Giedo van der Garde Caterham + 1m02.632s 20. Ricardo Teixeira Rapax + 1m07.468s 21. Giancarlo Serenelli Lazarus + 1m08.293s 22. Jolyon Palmer iSport + 1m18.688s 23. Fabrizio Crestani Lazarus + 1m26.049s Retirements: Simon Trummer Arden 21 laps Dani Clos Addax 19 laps Johnny Cecotto Addax 0 laps
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