Stefano Coletti Storms To Historic Home Victory At Monaco

Stefano Coletti has stormed to a historic home victory after the GP2 sprint race around the streets of Monte-Carlo, becoming the first Monegasque driver to take victory around the Principality since Louis Chiron back in 1931. The 24-year-old was followed home by Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and Mitch Evans.

After causing the multi-car pile-up at the start of yesterday’s feature race, Arden International’s Johnny Cecotto jr. was excluded from the remainder of the weekend. This meant only 25 drivers took to the grid for the sprint race, with British driver Adrian Quaife-Hobbs on the reverse grid pole alongside Austrian driver Rene Binder. At the start the Briton stormed into the lead ahead of local hero Stefano Coletti, as Rene Binder suffered a frustratingly slow getaway off of the line.

Reigning GP3 Champion Mitch Evans enjoyed a tremendous start from 6th on the grid, working his way up to 3rd by Turn 5 after mastering an overtaking maneuver up the inside of James Calado. Despite starting from pole and initially taking the lead, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was eventually overtaken by Stefano Coletti for the lead of the race on Lap 2, as the local hero stormed up the inside of the Briton at Turn 10.

As Stefano Coletti began to open up a considerable lead at the front, Daniel Abt and Simon Trummer were struck with drive-thru penalties for jumping the start. As the duo served their penalties, Tom Dillmann entered the pits with a suspected issue on his Russian Time machine. After several further pit-stops, the Frenchman found himself several laps off of the leaders way down in 25th position.

Despite Stefano Coletti’s commanding lead at the front of the order, many battles raged on throughout the order. After a superlative result in the feature race, Kevin Ceccon continued to impress after perfecting an overtaking maneuver on Sam Bird at Turn 10. To avoid a collision the Briton was forced to take avoiding action by cutting the chicane, eventually ceding 7th to the Italian driver. After taking a convincing victory in the feature race, Sam Bird failed to mount a resurgence in the latter stages of the race, as he began to plummet through the order.

As the race entered its closing stages, the battle within the midfield began to intensify as Jon Lancaster and Rio Haryanto collided at Turn 8. This caused a concertina-effect on the field, as Lancaster half spun his Hilmer Motorsport machine but managed to continue. Eventually Stefano Coletti stormed across the line to record a historic victory for Rapax, leading home Adrian Quaife-Hobbs in 2nd and Mitch Evans in 3rd. The Monegasque’s victory has enabled him to strengthen his lead in the Drivers’ Championship, as the Series enters a lengthy gap before reconvening around Silverstone for the British Grand Prix next month.

Results - 30 laps:

Pos Driver                Team                    Time/Gap
 1. Stefano Coletti       Rapax                 42m50.707s
 2. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs   MP                      + 1.869s
 3. Mitch Evans           Arden                   + 2.216s
 4. Felipe Nasr           Carlin                  + 2.536s
 5. James Calado          ART                     + 3.747s
 6. Rene Binder           Lazarus                + 19.293s
 7. Kevin Ceccon          Trident                + 20.015s
 8. Stephane Richelmi     DAMS                   + 20.576s
 9. Daniel de Jong        MP                     + 21.197s
10. Jake Rosenzweig       Addax                  + 31.720s
11. Sergio Canamasas      Caterham               + 34.105s
12. Jolyon Palmer         Carlin                 + 35.775s
13. Fabio Leimer          Racing Engineering     + 36.488s
14. Julian Leal           Racing Engineering     + 36.913s
15. Robin Frijns          Hilmer                 + 42.125s
16. Rio Haryanto          Addax                  + 43.235s
17. Jon Lancaster         Hilmer               + 1m03.893s
18. Marcus Ericsson       DAMS                 + 1m04.258s
19. Alexander Rossi       Caterham             + 1m04.735s
20. Kevin Giovesi         Lazarus              + 1m05.044s
21. Nathanael Berthon     Trident              + 1m05.468s
22. Daniel Abt            ART                  + 1m06.174s
23. Simon Trummer         Rapax                + 1m07.413s
24. Sam Bird              Russian Time             + 1 lap
25. Tom Dillmann          Russian Time            + 3 laps

Picture Copyright © Charles Coates/GP2 Series Media Service