2013 Bahrain GP2 Series round

Background

Bahrain International Circuit, where the race was held.

The 2013 Bahrain GP2 Series round was the second of eleven scheduled events in 2013. It was held on 20 and 21 April 2013 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, and was run in support of the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix.^[1] Tyre supplier Pirelli brought two types of tyre to the race: two dry compounds (soft "options" and hard "primes"). The soft tyres were identified by a yellow stripe on their side-walls, and the hard tyres were similarly identified in orange.^[2]

Before the race Rapax driver Stefano Coletti led the Drivers' Championship with 36 points, eleven ahead of nearest rival Fabio Leimer in second, who in turn, was a further point in front of Felipe Nasr in third. James Calado was fourth on 18 points and Stéphane Richelmi was six points behind the former in fifth place.^[3] Rapax were leading the Teams' Championship on 42 points; Racing Engineering had a small deficit to be seven points in arrears in second and Carlin were in third with 32 points. ART Grand Prix were in fourth position with 18 points and Arden International stood one point behind in fifth.^[3] Leimer and Coletti had won the previous two races of the season in the opening round in Sepang three weeks prior. Calado and Nasr each took one second-place finish and Mitch Evans had finished in third once.^[3]

There were two driver changes heading into the round. Having been in one of the Caterham Racing cars in the season's preceding round in Sepang, Ma Qinghua was replaced by the former Formula Renaullt 3.5 Series driver Alexander Rossi for the remainder of the year.^[4] Robin Frijns, the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion and the test and reserve driver for Sauber, was employed by Hilmer Motorsport to fill the seat vacated by Conor Daly who left the team after Sepang as he had a one-round contract with them.^[5]

Practice and qualifying

One practice session lasting half an hour was held on Thursday before the two races.^[6] Leimer for Racing Engineering set a benchmark which was the fastest time in the sole practice session—held in variable weather conditions and warm track temperatures—with a lap of one minute and 41.361 seconds on the hard compound tyres, one second faster than any one else on the track.^[7][8] His closest challenger was Sam Bird for Russian Time in second in front of third-placed Coletti and Rossi in fourth position. Marcus Ericsson of DAMS was fifth-fastest, ahead of Nasr. Calado was seventh-fastest, Russian Time's Tom Dillmann eighth, Johnny Cecotto Jr. of Arden International ninth and Daniel Abt for ART Grand Prix completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.^[7] Frijns spun early on but recovered without needing external assistance.^[7] Smoke bellowed out of Cecotto's car while driving at high-speed and later locked his tyres at the first corner before overshooting into the sand.^[7][8] Julián Leal stalled at the exit of the pit lane and this led to a stewards investigation over whether his team's mechanics restarted the car outside of the limits of the pit lane.^[8] Leal then narrowly avoided running into the rear of Rossi's car.^[7]

Marcus Ericsson (pictured in 2014) was one of qualifying pace setters but eventually started from second on the grid.

Friday afternoon's qualifying session ran for half an hour. The drivers' fastest lap times determined the starting order for the first race. The driver who won the pole position was awarded four points that went towards the Drivers' and Teams' Championship.^[6] Qualifying began under cloudy weather conditions and thus most of the field drove onto the track when the session started. Rain fell five minutes into qualifying but was not heavy enough to affect the track.^[9] Simon Trummer was the early pace setter but was soon eclipsed by his teammate Coletti, who in turn, was suppressed by Ericsson.^[10] Leimer then moved to the top of the time sheets with a new GP2 Series lap record of the Bahrain International Circuit and later lowered it to a one minute and 39.427 seconds lap time and this secured him the pole position. Ericsson appeared to challenge Leimer for pole but eased off after losing time in the final sector to join the latter on the grid's front row with a time nearly a second off Leimer's pace.^[10][11] Nasr equalled his qualifying result from the previous year's race to start from third.^[12] Coletti improved on his own fastest lap which was good enough for fourth.^[10] Dillmann was best of the late improvers and qualified fifth. Richelmi was close in arrears in sixth position.^[11] Rossi was in the top three early in the session but fell to seventh by its conclusion.^[10]

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (MP Motorsport) locked his tyres on his lap and took eighth. Bird improved late in the session to secure ninth and Frijns rounded out the top ten qualifiers.^[10] Calado was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten as his best time was 1.451 seconds slower than Leimer's pace. However he was demoted ten places on the grid for causing an accident in the previous round of the season in Sepang.^[11] Trummer thus moved into eleventh and Palmer started from twelfth. The next two positions on the grid were filled by Cecotto and Abt.^[12] Sergio Canamasas (Caterham Racing) set the sixteenth-fastest time but was sent to the back of the grid after being adjudged by the race stewards to have deliberately forced Kevin Ceccon (Trident) off the track while attempting to pass him after qualifying ended.^[13] Kevin Giovesi (Lazarus) was also penalised after the stewards ruled that he impeded Cecotto between the ninth and tenth turns and dropped three places on the grid.^[13] Mitch Evans (Arden International) was the only driver to be affected by problems as his car was affected by electrical problems and consequently pulled off into one of the track's run-off areas.^[10][14] This meant Evans was restricted to starting from sixteenth. The rest of the field lined up as Ceccon, Leal, René Binder (Lazarus), Jake Rosenzweig (Addax), Nathanaël Berthon (Trident), Pål Varhaug (Hilmer Motorsport), Rio Haryanto (Addax) and Daniël de Jong (MP Motorsport).^[11]

Races

The first race was held over a distance of either 170 kilometres (110 mi) or 60 minutes (which ever came first) and all drivers were required to make one pit stop. The first ten finishers scored points, with two being awarded to the competitor who recorded the fastest lap. The starting order for the second race was determined by the finishing positions of the first race but with the first eight drivers in reverse order of where they finished. It was run over a distance of either 120 kilometres (75 mi) or 45 minutes (which ever came first) and in contrast to the first race drivers were not required to make pit stops. The top eight finishers in the sprint race scored points towards their respective championships.^[6]

Feature race

The first race commenced on 15:45 Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00) on 20 April.^[15] Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry and sunny with an air temperature of 33 °C (91 °F) and a track temperature of 41 °C (106 °F).^[16] Ericsson stalled on the grid while the field began the formation lap and was forced to start from the pit lane.^[17] As the five red lights went out to signal the beginning of the event, Leimer fended off pressure from the fast-starting Coletti to maintain his pole position advantage in the opening sequence of corners.^[18] Coletti had forced Leimer to defend the lead at the fourth turn and drew alongside the latter through turns five and six but could not overtake him.^[19] Bird made a quick start and was able to move past Rossi and Quaife-Hobbs in the centre of the circuit for third position. Palmer also made a fast getaway and ran in fifth place after he passed Rossi heading down the main straight. De Jong became the first retirement after the first lap was over when he limped back to the pit lane. He was joined by Varhaug on lap five who had mechanical trouble.^[18]

Once the race had calmed down, Leimer was able to pull out an healthy gap of two seconds over Coletti by the start of lap five and set what was at that point the fastest lap of the race.^[16][18] Both men were also focused on ensuring their soft tyres lasted for as long as possible.^[20] The mandatory pit stops for the switch to the hard compound tyres began on the following lap when several drivers entered the pit lane.^[18] Quaife-Hobbs and Dillmann elected to run on an alternative strategy with the latter falling back from his starting position of fifth. During the pit stop sequence, Rossi moved back past Palmer and Frijns battled Leal for tenth place and later Giovesi before his own stop. Canamasas was penalised for the second day running as he handed a drive-through penalty after being deemed by the stewards of deliberately forcing Calado off the circuit.^[18] Bird and Nasr had slow pit stops and both drivers fell down the order.^[21] Leimer and Coletti made their stops from the top two at the end of the tenth lap and emerged ahead of the competitors who had already made their pit stops.^[18]

Fabio Leimer (pictured in 2015) held off Stefano Coletti in the first lap and maintained the lead to clinch his second victory of the season.

Leimer's advantage over Coletti had dwindled to 1.3 seconds but he regained some of that lead by overtaking the battling Evans and Giovesi at turn four. Coletti was then delayed by the same traffic jam and was three seconds adrift of Leimer.^[19] The yet-to-stop Quaife-Hobbs was now leading the field and was followed by Dillmann, Leal and Giovesi. Dilmann made his pit stop on the 18th lap and Leal followed on the next lap;^[18] Leal stalled as he drove away from his pit box and required assistance from his team's mechanics to restart his car. He later received a penalty for pit lane over-speeding.^[16] On the 20th lap and having led the last ten laps, Quaife-Hobbs was the last driver to enter the pit lane and Leimer regained first place.^[19][18] Quaife-Hobbs fell behind Dillmann but moved back ahead of the latter after getting his tyres up to temperature.^[18] Frijns moved to the inside of Richelmi on lap 21 heading towards turn one but went into the side of Richelmi's car and damaged his front wing.^[17] Frijns drove slowly to the pit lane for repairs but Richelmi was forced to abandon his damaged car on the circuit.^[18] Evans became the event's final retirement on the 25th lap when he stopped at one of the circuit's run-off areas with smoke bellowing from his car due to debris penetrating its radiator and overheating the engine.^[14][18]

Attention then focused on a battle for seventh place between Quaife-Hobbs, Dillmann and Trummer. This battle saw Trummer come out worse and was passed by the other cars in quick succession on lap 28.^[18] Nasr passed teammate Palmer to take over fifth on lap 30.^[19] Leimer held onto the lead for the remainder of the race to secure his second GP2 Series victory of the season and the fourth of his career.^[21] Coletti followed 1.9 seconds in arrears in second position and Rossi completed the podium positions. Off the podium, Nasr finished closely behind Rossi in fourth place with his teammate Palmer in fifth. Bird's pace reduced in the closing laps but held on to take sixth and fellow countryman Quaife-Hobbs clinched seventh.^[19] Dillmann came in eighth and secured the pole position for the sprint race. Trummer and Cecotto completed the top ten points-scoring finishers. Outside the top ten, Ceccon finished eleventh having moved up six from his starting position and Calado came twelfth. Ericsson recovered from his formation lap stall to take thirteenth. Abt, Haryanto, Rosenzweig, Berthon, Binder, Leal, Canamasas and Frijns rounded out the 21 classified finishers.^[21]

Sprint race

The second race began at 10:50 local time on 21 April.^[15] Weather conditions at the start of the event were dry and sunny with an air temperature of 30 °C (86 °F) and a track temperature at 42 °C (108 °F).^[22] On the grid, pole position starter Dillmann made a clean getaway and held off Quaife-Hobbs to keep the lead heading towards the first corner. Quaife-Hobbs attempted to steer onto the inside line but ran wide which contributed to some contact within the field.^[23] Coletti made a fast start and moved from seventh to third by driving on the outside line at turn one. Bird initially got away from his starting position slowly but Quaife-Hobbs's blocking of Coletti allowed him into second place on the inside.^[24][25] Rossi was clipped by Nasr going into the first corner and the latter broke Rossi's front wing.^[25][26] Leimer was on the inside line driving into turn one and Rossi's nose cone made contact with the sidepod and the turning vane of Leimer's car. This affected Leimer for the rest of the event as debris was lodged in his car's sidepod.^[22][26] Haryanto and Ericsson both sustained damage after they hit each other and went to the pit lane before resuming.^[23]

Sam Bird (pictured in 2012) took the lead on the second lap and held off Felipe Nasr to take Russian Time's first GP2 Series victory.

Bird drew close to teammate Dillmann and overtook him for the lead exiting the final corner. Dillmann fought back against Bird driving towards the first turn and the two went alongside each other.^[23][26] The two made minor contact in turns one and two which enabled Coletti to get a run on Dillmann and passed him to move into second. On the next lap, Nasr went down the inside of Dillmann going into the first corner and the latter lost third to Nasr. Calado was overtaken by Palmer for seventh place on the fourth lap and then held off an attack from teammate Abt.^[25] The field settled down as drivers looked to conserve their tyres,^[25] and the top three pulled away from Dillmann. On the sixth lap, Bird came upon a large chunk of debris driving towards the first corner and locked his tyres in an attempt to avoid running over it. He appeared to escape unhindered and the debris was then removed by a trackside marshal.^[23] Further down the field, a battle for fifth place involved Quaife-Hobbs, Leimer and Palmer. By lap seven, one second covered the trio and Leimer looked for a way past Quaife-Hobbs but was cautious not to allow Palmer to take advantage of the situation.^[22] Further back, Berthon lost two positions after being overtaken by Evans and Leal.^[23]

The damage to Ericsson's car became too problematic for him and became the race's sole retirement at its midway point while Binder visited the pit lane twice, putting him one lap behind the leader. Tyres began to show signs of degradation at the halfway point and more action was observed: Ceccon moved past Rosenzweig for eleventh and was now catching Cecotto. Canamasas battled with Trummer over who would be the first driver to pass the ailing Berthon who elected to make a pit stop for new tyres. Frijns appeared to falter and fell behind Richelmi, Evans and Leal in quick succession to be demoted to 16th. Quaife-Hobbs was inexperienced in tyre management in the GP2 Series and him delaying Leimer meant the latter came under pressure.^[23] On the 19th lap,^[23] Palmer overtook Leimer around the inside at turn one to move into sixth after the latter ran wide in an attempt to defend the position. Calado followed through for seventh at the fourth corner.^[24][25] Quaife-Hobbs's tyres were heavily worn and was eventually demoted to eighth position when he was overtaken by Calado, Palmer and Abt.^[25]

As the race entered the final two laps,^[26] Coletti and Nasr were gaining on Bird whose tyres were worn out.^[24][27] The pressure on Bird was temporarily relieved when Coletti locked his tyres heading towards the tenth corner and later braked too late for the final turn. He overshot the corner and allowed Nasr through into second position.^[23][27] Coletti appeared to have flat-spotted his tyres as a consequence and could not remain on the track and his chances for the victory were over.^[23] Nasr appeared to manage his tyre life better than other drivers and quickly drew close to Bird on the final lap and pulled alongside him under braking for the final turn. Bird went defensive and controlled the wheelspin in his tyres.^[23][26][27] Nasr pulled out of Bird's slipstream but could not overhaul Bird who held on and won the race.^[28][27] The margin of victory was eight-hundredths of a second, the closest in GP2 Series history.^[28] Coletti held on to finish third with a comfortable margin over Dillmann in fourth. Calado was fifth, Palmer sixth, Abt seventh and Quaife-Hobbs rounded out the points-scorers in eighth. Leimer, Ceccon, Canamasas, Cecotto, Richelmi, Trummer, Evans, Leal, Giovesi, De Jong, Rosenzweig, Rossi, Varhaug, Berthon, Frijns, Haryanto and Binder were the last of the classified finishers.^[27] Bird's victory was the first for Russian Time after it took over ISport International.^[23]

Post-race

The top three drivers of both races appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and to participate later in a press conference. Leimer revealed that his objective for the feature race was to execute a fast getaway off the line, but in spite of struggling which almost lost him a position to Coletti, he declared himself "very happy" as he had waited for some time to win another race in the GP2 Series. When asked if he was not worried about heavy overtaking and tyre management, he replied yes, "but I was much quicker than them so I was not using my tyres that much. It’s not the perfect situation for the tyres, but I still managed to save them."^[29] Coletti spoke of his happiness over the job performed by his team but felt he could have pushed harder earlier in the race due to the fear of wearing his tyres out and thus elected to not take the risk. He stated that he did not inform his team that he observed Leimer entering the pit lane on the same lap as him and now believed he could have remained on track for one additional lap.^[29] Rossi revealed his apprehension about how his tyres would behave and was uncertain on how to push it. Nevertheless, he praised the effort his team put into the event and spoke of his happiness of finishing in third place.^[29]

Bird said his victory in the sprint race felt "fantastic", "Being back in GP2 is already feeling very good, being back in the feeder series to Formula One is a great place to be. To win for RUSSIAN TIME after only four races of existence is a very good feeling."^[30] He believed that he may have pushed too hard at the wrong time in the race, "it was just a case of keeping it on the racing line and hoping they'd battle it out behind me. Felipe's car was like a rocket at the end. Big thanks to my new team: to win in our fourth race, with no pre-season testing, is amazing."^[27] Nasr spoke about car management and maintaining the pace levels with the leaders and believed he could have won in an alternative situation, "But anyway, it’s still a good result. We came here to score big points and it’s quite good to go back to Europe knowing that we have a good car, a good team. It keeps getting better and better. I’m feeling quite confident."^[30] Coletti believed his third-place finish contributed towards "a good weekend" for himself. He stated that entering the European leg of the season as the points leader had given him additional motivation and hoped to be competing at the front of the field in Barcelona, "We’re still a few points ahead – ten I think. But like I said, we need to score big points in Race 1 and I think that in Barcelona we’ll be in the front."^[30]

The results of the round meant Coletti still led the Drivers' Championship but his advantage over Leimer was one point less than it had been before the race weekend. Nasr remained in third place on 48 points. After standing in ninth prior to the round, Bird moved into fourth position with a points total of 33 while Calado fell to fifth on 24 points.^[3] Rapax remained the leaders of the Teams' Championship in spite of their lead over Carlin being cut to two points. Racing Engineering's results dropped them to third while Russian Time were now in fourth having moved up three from their previous standing. Arden International rounded out the top five with nine rounds left in the season.^[3]

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1	8	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	1:39.427	—	1
2	1	Marcus Ericsson	DAMS	1:40.420	+0.993	2
3	9	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	1:40.520	+1.093	3
4	18	Stefano Coletti	Rapax	1:40.585	+1.158	4
5	12	Tom Dillmann	Russian Time	1:40.689	+1.262	5
6	2	Stéphane Richelmi	DAMS	1:40.704	+1.277	6
7	15	Alexander Rossi	Caterham Racing	1:40.756	+1.329	7
8	26	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	MP Motorsport	1:40.769	+1.342	8
9	11	Sam Bird	Russian Time	1:40.842	+1.415	9
10	22	Robin Frijns	Hilmer Motorsport	1:40.865	+1.438	10
11	3	James Calado	ART Grand Prix	1:40.878	+1.451	212
12	19	Simon Trummer	Rapax	1:40.892	+1.465	11
13	10	Jolyon Palmer	Carlin	1:41.033	+1.606	12
14	5	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Arden International	1:41.043	+1.616	13
15	4	Daniel Abt	ART Grand Prix	1:41.070	+1.646	14
16	14	Sergio Canamasas	Caterham Racing	1:41.229	+1.802	262
17	25	Kevin Giovesi	Lazarus	1:41.236	+1.809	193
18	6	Mitch Evans	Arden International	1:41.237	+1.810	15
19	21	Kevin Ceccon	Trident Racing	1:41.243	+1.816	16
20	7	Julián Leal	Racing Engineering	1:41.504	+2.077	17
21	24	René Binder	Lazarus	1:41.553	+2.126	18
22	16	Jake Rosenzweig	Barwa Addax	1:41.687	+2.260	20
23	20	Nathanaël Berthon	Trident Racing	1:41.730	+2.303	22
24	23	Pål Varhaug	Hilmer Motorsport	1:41.980	+2.553	23
25	17	Rio Haryanto	Barwa Addax	1:41.981	+2.554	24
26	27	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	1:42.284	+2.857	25
Source:[11]

Notes:

• ^1 — James Calado was demoted ten places on the grid for causing an accident at the previous round of the season in Sepang.^[11]
• ^2 — Kevin Giovesi was given a three-place grid penalty for blocking another competitor during qualifying.^[13]
• ^3 — Sergio Canamasas was moved to the back of the grid after race stewards ruled that he had deliberately attempted to force Kevin Ceccon off the circuit.^[13]

Feature race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	8	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	32	57:21.528	1	25 (4)
2	18	Stefano Coletti	Rapax	32	+1.929	4	18
3	15	Alexander Rossi	Caterham Racing	32	+9.030	7	15
4	9	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	32	+9.498	3	12
5	10	Jolyon Palmer	Carlin	32	+15.037	12	10
6	11	Sam Bird	Russian Time	32	+28.518	6	8
7	26	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	MP Motorsport	32	+33.067	8	6
8	12	Tom Dillmann	Russian Time	32	+33.589	5	4
9	19	Simon Trummer	Rapax	32	+36.246	11	2
10	5	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Arden International	32	+37.459	13	1 (2)
11	21	Kevin Ceccon	Trident Racing	32	+42.502	16
12	3	James Calado	ART Grand Prix	32	+48.084	21
13	1	Marcus Ericsson	DAMS	32	+48.709	2
14	4	Daniel Abt	ART Grand Prix	32	+53.482	14
15	17	Rio Haryanto	Barwa Addax	32	+59.146	24
16	16	Jake Rosenzweig	Barwa Addax	32	+1:05.997	20
17	20	Nathanaël Berthon	Trident Racing	32	+1:10.696	22
18	24	René Binder	Lazarus	32	+1:11.776	18
19	7	Julián Leal	Racing Engineering	32	+1:19.886	17
20	14	Sergio Canamasas	Caterham Racing	32	+1:20.456	26
21	22	Robin Frijns	Hilmer Motorsport	31	+1 lap	10
Ret	25	Kevin Giovesi	Lazarus	27	Retired	19
Ret	6	Mitch Evans	Arden International	25	Retired	15
Ret	2	Stéphane Richelmi	DAMS	20	Retired	6
Ret	23	Pål Varhaug	Hilmer Motorsport	4	Retired	23
Ret	27	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	1	Retired	25
Fastest lap: Johnny Cecotto Jr. (Arden International) — 1:45.115 (on lap 28)
Source:[19]

Sprint race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	11	Sam Bird	Russian Time	23	41:08.133	1	15 (2)
2	9	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	23	+0.080	3	12
3	18	Stefano Coletti	Rapax	23	+4.206	11	10
4	12	Tom Dillmann	Russian Time	23	+10.328	6	8
5	3	James Calado	ART Grand Prix	23	+19.713	17	6
6	10	Jolyon Palmer	Carlin	23	+21.773	12	4
7	4	Daniel Abt	ART Grand Prix	23	+24.108	20	2
8	26	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	MP Motorsport	23	+27.722	8	1
9	8	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	23	+27.894	5
10	21	Kevin Ceccon	Trident	23	+27.977	22
11	14	Sergio Canamasas	Caterham Racing	23	+28.601	18
12	5	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Arden International	23	+35.477	2
13	2	Stéphane Richelmi	DAMS	23	+35.858	4
14	19	Simon Trummer	Rapax	23	+36.346	15
15	6	Mitch Evans	Arden International	23	+36.950	16
16	7	Julián Leal	Racing Engineering	23	+37.671	13
17	25	Kevin Giovesi	Lazarus	23	+41.248	21
18	27	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	23	+44.757	9
19	16	Jake Rosenzweig	Barwa Addax	23	+47.006	19
20	15	Alexander Rossi	Caterham Racing	23	+52.044	14
21	23	Pål Varhaug	Hilmer Motorsport	23	+54.740	10
22	20	Nathanaël Berthon	Trident	23	+55.332	7
23	22	Robin Frijns	Hilmer Motorsport	23	+1:02.964	7
24	17	Rio Haryanto	Barwa Addax	23	+1:17.388	7
25	24	René Binder	Lazarus	22	+1 Lap	7
Ret	1	Marcus Ericsson	DAMS	5	Retired	7
Fastest lap: Sam Bird (Russian Time) — 1:45.465 (on lap 4)
Source:[27]