Monaco Feature Race Results
Monaco Wild Card
Monaco doesn’t typically involve exciting on track racing action nor any nail-biting conclusions but on this occasion, GP2 had one of its most dramatic and bizarre races in recent years. A race with plenty of accidents and retirements as well as a 2 safety cars and a Red Flag, that latter of which brought the race to a complete standstill for more than half an hour.
Despite the chaos Tio Ellinas climbed up a remarkable 9 places on a track which is notoriously infamous for how difficult it is to overtake. Starting from 19th position and driving maturely, Tio leveraged his experience and benefited from good fortune to end up finishing 10th and in the process claiming a championship point for both himself and MP Motorsport.
The Race
Tio had a decent start and immediately gained a position. Then on lap 10, Tio went into the pits for the mandatory change in tyre compund, and coming out he had gained another absolute track position.
On the 12th lap of the 42 lap race, teammates at Arden Racing, Rene Binder & Andre Negrao had coming together at the famous Loews u-turn. This collision completely blocked the road for all oncoming traffic, including Tio. As a result, and to much confusion and humour, Charlie Whiting issued a red flag and the race was stopped.
Before the lap 12 incident, Tio was shown on the official live timing to be running in 17th position but at the restart, he was slotted-in to 20th position for the rolling start behind the safety car. Another set-back was the fact that those out in front who still hadn’t pitted yet could change to fresh tyres while the race was stopped.
Not to be discouraged, after the restart and in the space of just 28 laps (due to time restrictions only 40 laps were completed out of the scheduled 42) Tio rallied 10 places to claim another valuable championship point at the most prestigious racing arena in the world.
Race 2
The 2nd race is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, 16:10 local time (17:10 in Cyprus).
The standings for the Race 1 of Monaco below:
Results
1. #7 Jolyon Palmer DAMS 1:38:31.193s (40 laps)
2. #1 Mitch Evans Russian Time + 0.427s
3. #3 Felipe Nasr Carlin + 0.653s
4. #23 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Trident + 2.175s
5. #22 Sergio Canamasas Trident + 2.884s
6. #26 Arthur Pic Campos Racing + 6.187s
7. #18 Rio Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing + 8.718s
8. #8 Stéphane Richelmi DAMS + 9.594s
9. #14 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Rapax + 9.785s
10. #21 Tio Ellinas MP Motorsport + 10.187s
11. #20 Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport + 10.689s
12. #5 Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering + 11.727s
13. #25 Conor Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus + 12.291s
14. #10 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix + 12.705s
15. #27 Kimiya Sato Campos Racing + 26.761s
16. #19 Alexander Rossi EQ8 Caterham Racing + 29.166s
17. #24 Nathanaël Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus + 56.107s
Retirements
#16 Rene Binder Arden International (retired on lap 35)
#2 Artem Markelov Russian Time (retired on lap 35)
#9 Takuya Izawa ART Grand Prix (retired on lap 31)
#15 Simon Trummer Rapax (retired on lap 31)
#6 Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering (retired on lap 31)
#4 Julian Leal Carlin (retired on lap 24)
#17 André Negrao Arden International (retired on lap 11)
#11 Daniel Abt Hilmer Motorsport (retired on lap 9)
#12 Facu Regalia Hilmer Motorsport (retired on lap 0)
Fastest Lap
#7 Jolyon Palmer DAMS 1:23.008 (90.007mph) on lap 19