Calado sprints to victory at Sepang

In the sprint race James Calado led from start to finish in a peerless display, the rookie driver taking his first victory in GP2 in only his second race. Finishing in 8th position in the feature race yesterday gave him pole position for the sprint race today, and he held off his team-mate Esteban Gutiérrez all race for the win. It was a day for the rookies, as Felipe Nasr also stepped up to the podium, finishing the race 3rd, behind the two Lotus GP cars.


After the disappointment of not converting pole into a race victory yesterday, Davide Valsecchi’s weekend got even worse. An attempt at overtaking yesterday’s race winner, Luiz Razia, saw him run wide and off the track. Upon rejoining his car was hit by Marcus Ericsson’s iSport, causing Valsecchi’s car to take off, spinning through the air. Thankfully both Valsecchi and Ericsson were unharmed, but Valsecchi’s race was over. For his role in the incident Ericsson will receive a 10 place grid penalty in Bahrain.


There was a great fight for 6th place, with Razia, Max Chilton, Stefano Coletti and Nathanaël Berthon all close and regularly exchanging positions. In the battle for points Coletti was unfortunate to sustain damage to the nose of his car, which coming so close to the end of the race necessitated his retirement. The pack managed to catch up to Fabio Leimer, who was running in 5th, and on lap 21 Razia passed Leimer. At the checkered flag it was Giedo van der Garde who finished 4th, with Razia 5th, Leimer 6th, Chilton 7th and Berthon 8th. Despite finishing outside the points positions it was not all gloom for Carlin’s Rio Haryanto, who on lap 7 managed to set the fastest lap of the race, giving him his first 2 points in GP2.


Results of the Malaysian Sprint Race

1.	James Calado	41:08.048
2.	Esteban Gutiérrez	+2.004
3.	Felipe Nasr	+3.440
4.	Giedo van der Garde	+10.760
5.	Luiz Razia	+11.430
6.	Fabio Leimer	+14.689
7.	Max Chilton	+15.685
8.	Nathanaël Berthon	+16.578
9.	Josef Král	+18.175
10.	Rio Haryanto	+24.033
11.	Tom Dillmann	+24.086
12.	Jolyon Palmer	+25.547
13.	Fabio Onidi	+32.206
14.	Nigel Melker	+34.500
15.	Julián Leal	+34.629
16.	Simon Trummer	+35.226
17.	Jon Lancaster	+40.340
18.	Rodolfo González	+44.700
19.	Stéphane Richelmi	+47.133
20.	Giancarlo Serenelli	+1:10.466
21.	Fabrizio Crestani	+1:21.035
22.	Johnny Cecotto, Jr.	+1 lap
23.	Stefano Coletti1	Retired
24.	Ricardo Teixeira1	Retired
R.	Davide Valsecchi	Retired
R.	Marcus Ericsson	Retired

1 Stefano Coletti and Ricardo Teixeira both classified as they completed 90% of the race winner's distance