Valsecchi wins with ease

Davide Valsecchi built on his pole position yesterday by winning the feature race in Bahrain, leading almost start to finish.  The Italian made a good start, moving to block Gutiérrez on the inside of turn 1, and never looked back from then.  Entering the pits for his mandatory stop, Valsecchi briefly lost the lead to Fabio Leimer, who had yet to pit, but quickly retook the lead when Leimer stopped.

After qualifying 3^rd yesterday, Felipe Nasr had high hopes of a podium; however, a poor start dropped him down to 4^th, and following his pit-stop he was battling with Johnny Cecotto, Jr. for 6^th place when the two collided, ending both their races.  The incident required the safety car to come out for 3 laps, reducing Valsecchi’s lead over James Calado in 2^nd place, which had previously stood at 17.6 seconds.  When the safety car came in, however, Calado’s tyres were starting to fade, so instead of challenging Valsecchi for the lead, he found himself trying to hold off the challenge of Luiz Razia.  This allowed Valsecchi to rebuild a comfortable lead over Calado, who was passed on lap 23 by Razia.

Esteban Gutierrez, who had been second before pitting, was held up by a problem with the right rear tyre, dropping him down to 12^th.  He managed to fight his way back through the field, however, and finished 3^rd.  Tom Dillmann scored his first ever points in GP2, finishing 6^th.  Fabio Onidi finished 8^th, giving him pole for the sprint race tomorrow afternoon.  The points positions were rounded off by returning driver Brendon Hartley.  Valsechhi made sure of maximum points for the round so far, setting the fastest lap on lap 25.

Results of the Bahrain Feature Race

1.	Davide Valsecchi	59:31.115
2.	Luiz Razia	+7.770
3.	Esteban Gutiérrez	+13.528
4.	Max Chilton	+14.088
5.	James Calado	+16.278
6.	Tom Dillmann	+16.559
7.	Fabio Leimer	+17.243
8.	Fabio Onidi	+28.109
9.	Rio Haryanto	+32.846
10.	Brendon Hartley	+36.093
11.	Stéphane Richelmi	+37.377
12.	Julián Leal	+38.677
13.	Marcus Ericsson	+40.627
14.	Fabrizio Crestani	+41.009
15.	Rodolfo González	+44.028
16.	Simon Trummer	+44.552
17.	Ricardo Teixeira	+47.776
18.	Giancarlo Serenelli	+52.464
19.	Dani Clos1	Retired
20.	Nigel Melker1	Retired
21.	Nathanaël Berthon1	Retired
R.	Johnny Cecotto, Jr.	Retired
R.	Felipe Nasr	Retired
R.	Giedo van der Garde	Retired
R.	Stefano Coletti	Retired
DNS	Jolyon Palmer

¹ Dani Clos, Nigel Melker and Nathanaël Berthon all classified as they completed 90% of the race winner's distance