Posted on 29th May 2013
The GP2 weekend in Monaco started on Thursday with a practice session and a qualifying session later on the same day. The practice session gave us something to remember as Monaco usually does, this time it was something bit different: a dove decided to check the track out in the swimming pool area just when Felipe Nasr was passing the same point on the track. The bird made beautiful moves to avoid Nasr's car – it was very close but it did survive. The same dove appeared again later on Sunday during the F1 race and flew close to Nico Rosberg's car, perhaps trying to get some fame on the streets of Monaco and looking good on the slowmo replays!.
Qualifying:
Later on Thursday it was qualifying time. The qualifying was a bit different from usual as the drivers did qualifying in two different groups: odd numbers as Group A and the even numbers as Group B. Both groups had 15 minutes to do their fastest laps. This type of qualifying is used only in Monaco to prevent traffic, as the track would be really busy with all the 26 cars on the track at the same time, trying to get a clean lap.
Group A entered the track first and everyone tried to get a clean lap, but even though there were only 13 cars on the track, it seemed to be difficult to find a good place to be and get the perfect lap. Arden's Johnny Cecotto was strong in Monaco last year and showed once again that the track suits him very well as he made the fastest time of Group A. Others tried hard to beat Cecotto's time, but it didn't happen and he set fastest time in Group A.
After a short break, it was Group B's turn to make their lap times and it seemed like Arden really had found good pace in Monaco. Mitch Evans tried to beat the time his team mate Cecotto had made in Group A, but lost out to his team mate by only 0.016 seconds! This meant Cecotto was going to start from pole position as he did last year, and also that Group A drivers would start from the clean side of the track, and Group B drivers from the dirty side. This meant Evans was going to start 2nd on the grid as he was fastest of Group B. Sam Bird took 3rd place on the grid as he was 2nd on the Group A, Fabio Leimer had 4th place as he was 2nd on the Group B and so on. It was a really different way to sort the grid, but it's Monaco's special way.
Feature Race:
As the timetable in Monaco is a bit different from other races, the GP2 feature race was on Friday morning. The race start was postponed though, as there was a crash in Porsche Supercup qualifying which happened before GP2 was about to start. There was some oil on the track and it had to be cleaned away. This meant drivers needed to be very careful as the track was going to be slippery.
After clearing the track it was finally time for the race start and the drivers were eager to get on racing after some waiting in the pitlane. Cecotto got a bad start from pole and his team mate Evans took first place at the start. Sergio Canamasas had stalled his car on the grid, but everyone was able to avoid him. Then drama started though: drivers were coming to the first corner, but Cecotto came in way too fast and found himself in the wall, followed by Fabio Leimer who crashed into his rear. Leimer had no choice as there was no space anywhere and he couldn't turn the corner. Jolyon Palmer meanwhile tried to avoid Cecotto and Leimer, but was spun by a touch from behind from Julian Leal resulting in a blocked track and only a couple of drivers were able to avoid the madness. Evans had passed the turn before others so he was safe. Sam Bird, Kevin Ceccon, Felipe Nasr and James Calado somehow got themselves out without serious damage. The race was however red flagged as the first corner was completely blocked by cars.
Marshalls started to do what they do best and started clearing the stranded cars off the road. They tried to help Daniel Abt to push start his car which had no damage. They tried several times, but couldn't start the car. They left Abt's car for a while and then tried to push start Rene Binder's car: with success. Some drivers who got damage on the first corner were confused by this and ran to check their cars to see if they could continue racing. Some of the drivers were helped back to the grid and Abt was also pushed to the start-finish straight. Canamasas who stalled his car at the first start rejoined the race too having avoided all the chaos in the first corner.
Teams were allowed to repair their cars if they made it to the grid again. On the grid, drivers were in the position they were after the first corner and those who were helped out from the first corner, started behind those who survived.
It was time for a restart behind the safety car which came in after one lap and the race was on again with Evans leading, Bird 2nd and Ceccon 3rd. It was clear it was going to be really difficult and challenging to overtake on the track and pitstops were going to play a big part in position changes. Bird was giving loads of pressure to young Evans in the lead. Series leader Stefano Coletti was involved in the first corner accident, but he was able to get into the restart and came for an early pit stop. The aim was to get good points to keep the lead on the championship, as his main rival Nasr was in the top 4. When Evans came in for his stop, Bird was finally able to drive on a clear track for a while and he stayed out for much longer than any other driver in the top 5. It went just as planned as when Bird finally came to stop, he managed to keep his lead when he emerged back on the track. It was clear nobody was going to catch Bird. It was difficult for the others to make any impression as there really weren't possibilities to overtake. Canamasas tried to make a move on the chicane after the tunnel, but it didn't work out.
Sam Bird won the race with a gap of over 20 seconds to Kevin Ceccon who was 2nd. Evans was 3rd, Nasr 4th, Calado 5th, Coletti 6th, Binder 7th, Quaife-Hobbs 8th, Richelmi 9th and De Jong 10th.
The turn one accident was investigated after the race and the stewards decided to suspend Johnny Cecotto from Saturday's sprint race.
Sprint Race:
The Sprint Race took place at Saturday after the Formula 1 qualifying, and the starting grid was reversed from the Feature Race's results as usual and this meant Quaife-Hobbs was going to start from pole with Binder next to him in second place. Coletti started 3rd, Calado 4th, Nasr 5th, Evans 6th, Ceccon 7th and Bird 8th.
The start was much cleaner than in the feature race and everybody passed the first corner without any harm. Quaiffe-Hobbs kept the lead and Coletti went up to second. Calado managed to get 3rd but got lots of pressure from Mitch Evans right behind. Calado didn't keep his 3rd place for long as Evans was able to pass him and Felipe Nasr almost used the same pass on Calado as Evans did, but couldn't pass. On the next lap, Nasr was able to pass Calado for 4th after the first corner as the British driver made a mistake.
A couple of laps later Coletti was pushing behind Quaiffe-Hobbs and clearly wanted to make a move and get the lead. What would be better than to win at home on his home streets? This surely was in Coletti's mind and he managed to pass Quaiffe-Hobbs and get the lead at his home race. Behind the top 2 it was very close with changing gaps all the time, but it was really challenging to pass. Drivers were in a train around the street track and drivers came to the chequered flag after everybody had a clean race. Coletti won his home race, Quaiffe-Hobbs was 2nd and Evans 3rd. Nasr continued his streak of top 4 finishes as he finished 4th again. Calado was 5th and it was quite a good weekend for him after a difficult start. Binder was 6th, Ceccon 7th and Richelmi 8th.
There will be a one month break from the GP2 series as they won't be racing at Canada. The series is back in the end of July in Silverstone, be sure you will be watching as the championship continues and anything can happen in GP2.
