2015 Monaco GP2 Series round

Background

Circuit de Monaco, where the race was held.

The 2015 Monaco GP2 Series round was the third of eleven scheduled events in 2015. It was held on 22 and 23 May 2015 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco and was run in support of the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix.^[1] Tyre supplier Pirelli brought three types of tyre to the round; two dry compounds (super soft "options" and soft "primes") and one wet-weather compound. The supersoft tyres were identified by a red stripe on their side-walls, and the soft tyres were similarly identified with yellow.^[2] The drag reduction system (DRS) had one activation zone for the race: on the main straight linking the final and first turns.^[3][4]

Before the race, ART Grand Prix driver Stoffel Vandoorne led the Drivers' Championship with 86 points, 37 ahead of nearest rival Rio Haryanto, who in turn, was a further three in front of Alexander Rossi in third. Mitch Evans was fourth on 28 points, and Alex Lynn was three points behind him in fifth place.^[5] ART Grand Prix were leading the Teams' Championship with 93 points; Racing Engineering were six points ahead of Campos Racing in the battle for second position. DAMS were in fourth on 41 points, and Russian Time rounded out the top five on 34 points.^[6] Three different drivers had won the first four events of the season with Vandoorne the only driver to have won twice. Evans and Haryanto had finished in second once, and Rossi, Nathanaël Berthon (Lazarus) and Pierre Gasly (DAMS) had each achieved third-place podium finishes.^[5]

Practice and qualifying

Alexander Rossi (pictured in 2013) had the second pole position of his GP2 Series career.

One 45-minute practice session was held on Thursday before the two races.^[3] The session was held on a dry race track upon having dried up from earlier rain.^[7] Arthur Pic of Campos Racing was the fastest driver with a time of one minute and 20.556 seconds, two-tenths of a second faster than Rossi in second. Gasly was third-fastest, ahead of Vandoorne. Sergio Canamasas (MP Motorsport) and Raffaele Marciello (Trident) were fifth and sixth. Richie Stanaway (Status Grand Prix) was seventh-fastest, André Negrão (Arden International) eighth, Haryanto ninth and Norman Nato completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.^[8] Evans caused an brief early red flag period when he stopped his car at the top of the hall entering Massenet corner, and was unable to set a timed lap.^[8][9] Canamasas went into the Sainte Dévote run-off area,^[8] and Marco Sørensen (Carlin) locked his tyres, causing him hit the barriers at Rascasse corner,^[9] and reversed out of the turn.^[8] Daniël de Jong stopped his car at the Novelle chicane because with a car mechanical failure.^[8][9]

Friday afternoon's qualifying session ran for 30-minutes. Qualifying was divided into two groups of thirteen cars, with the odd numbered vehicles in Group A and the even numbered cars in Group B.^[10] 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 races.^[3] Light rain fell as the session started with some drivers electing to equip the super soft tyres to their cars while other competitors chose to utilise wet-weather compounds.^[11] Rossi clinched the second pole position of his GP2 Series career with a time of one minute and 37.019 seconds.^[12] The achievement ended Vandoorne's run of consecutive pole positions which started at the 2014 Spa-Francorchamps round.^[13] He was joined on the grid's front row by Marciello who was three-tenths of a second off Rossi's pace and had the pole until the latter's lap.^[14] Marciello pushed hard and narrowly avoided losing control of his car at Massenet's barriers.^[12] Pic qualified third and Vandoorne was fourth. Rapax's Sergey Sirotkin improved his lap time late in the qualifying period to start from fifth place.^[14] He shared the third row with Julián Leal of Carlin who was ahead of Hilmer Motorsport's Nick Yelloly and Jordan King for Racing Engineering.^[13] Canamasas and de Jong completed the top ten qualifiers;^[12] de Jong slid into the Mirabeau barrier in the closing minutes of qualifying.^[13][14]

Nobuharu Matsushita was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten; his fastest time was two seconds slower than Rossi's pole position lap.^[13] Gasly went deep into Sainte Dévote but did not damage his car en route to qualifying 12th.^[12][14] Artem Markelov followed in 13th, ahead of Stanaway who damaged his front wing in a light collision with the Mirabeau barrier which required him to enter the pit lane for a replacement nose cone.^[12][13] Negrão filled the inside of the eighth row in 15th, with Zoël Amberg behind him in 16th who aquaplaned off the circuit because of an oversteer and hit the exit Tabac corner barrier heavily, removing his right-rear wheel.^[12][14] The two were followed by Lynn and Evans;^[13] the latter overshot the entry into Sainte Dévote but avoided damaging his vehicle.^[12] Sørensen's vehicle briefly launched into the air after driving over the kerbs through the swimming pool complex and qualified in 19th position.^[12][13] René Binder and Johnny Cecotto Jr. started from 20th and 21st positions;^[14] Cecotto went into Mirabeau's run-off area but avoided damaging his car. Berthon qualified in 22nd and Haryanto was issued with a three-place starting penalty for being unable to slow sufficiently during a yellow flag period in the track's second sector and started from 23rd.^[12][13] Nato, Marlon Stöckinger and Robert Vișoiu were the last of the qualifiers.^[14]

Races

The first race was held over a distance of either 140 kilometres (87 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 100 kilometres (62 mi) or 45 minutes (which ever came first) and in contrast to the first race drivers were not allowed to make pit stops. The top eight finishers scored points towards their respective championships.^[3]

Feature race

Stoffel Vandoorne (pictured in 2013) won his seventh race of his GP2 Series career.

Weather conditions at the start of the race were sunny and warm with an air temperature of 19 °C (66 °F) and a track temperature of 28 °C (82 °F).^[15] The race started at 11:10 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) on 22 May.^[16] Matsushita stalled his car on his starting position because of a loss of oil pressure,^[17] and five other drivers stalled shortly afterwards, prompting marshals to push them away from the grid. A further delay was caused during the wait for the stalled cars when confusion arose over who started where, and it was later decided to perform another formation lap, causing the race's distance to be shortened by one lap. Gasly was deemed to have jumped the start and was required to begin the race from the pit lane.^[18] When the race started 20 minutes later after one extra lap was removed from the race distance, Maricello made a fast getaway and moved in front of Rossi around the outside to take over the lead heading into Sainte Dévote corner.^[18][19] Further down the field, Amberg damaged his front wing and made a pit stop for repairs at the end of the first lap.^[18] Pic maintained third position from Vandoorne,^[17] while Stanaway made the best start in the field, moving from 14th to tenth, while King made up three positions over the same distance.^[18] Maricello held a 2.1 second lead over Rossi by the end of lap one because he had the super soft tyres equipped on his car.^[17]

Maricello's super soft tyres began to degrade quickly, allowing Rossi and Vandoorne to draw closer over the next two laps.^[17][19] Rossi caught Maricello by the start of the sixth lap but the latter remained on the circuit. King, who was delayed by a long queue of vehicles behind him, was the first driver to make a scheduled pit stop on the same lap and rejoined the track in clear air.^[17] On lap eight, Matsushita collided heavily with de Jong at the Novelle chicane, causing him to retire and was later penalised with a three-place grid penalty for the sprint race after the stewards judged him to have missed the corner's braking point. De Jong was able to continue.^[18][19] Marciello made his pit stop for new tyres on the next lap, allowing Rossi and Vandoorne to move into the first and second places and both drivers built an advantage over the remainder of the field.^[19] Maricello rejoined in eleventh, behind Pic,^[18] who made his pit stop one lap later.^[17] Sørensen was placed into the Casino Hairpin barriers at the apex of the corner by Nato on lap ten, ending his race.^[18] Nato was issued with a ten-second time penalty,^[18] but no safety car was deployed.^[17] Marvelov retired from the race in the pit lane with damage to his car after running off the circuit, and drove over a kerb exiting the left-hand Louis Chiron corner, causing him to become airborne, and hit the barriers lining the track.^[20]

Rossi held a one-second lead over Vandoorne who pushed hard to keep him within distance of Rossi.^[18] Evans attempted to overtake Yelloly leaving the tunnel at the chicane but Yellowly steered into Evans, who was forced to retire from the event on lap 18.^[18][20] The incident necessitated the activation of the virtual safety car (VSC) to allow track officials to clean the circuit.^[18] Rossi and Vandoorne elected to make pit stops for super soft tyres during the VSC with Vandoorne emerging in the lead.^[17] Leal moved into third despite making contact with Sirotkin.^[19] At the race's restart, Vandoorne extended his advantage over Rossi by 3.4 seconds in the course of one lap. This was the case until Rossi drove two seconds faster on the following lap and was half a second behind Vandoorne by the 23rd lap.^[17] Yelloly set the feature race's fastest time on the same lap, completing a circuit in one minute and 22.314 seconds.^[21] Vandoorne's and Rossi's releases from their pit stall were investigated by the stewards but chose not to take any further action. A brief second VSC period was deployed when debris was located in the run up to Rascasse corner.^[17] Canamasas overtook Pic at Sainte Dévote to move into fourth at the beginning of the 28th lap.^[18]

With ten laps of the race remaining, Rossi reported to his team over the radio that his front tyres were degrading,^[17] while Vandoorne was experiencing the same issue.^[18] King quickly closed the gap to Yelloly and overtook him for ninth place on the 32nd lap.^[15] Vandoorne held the lead for the remainder of the race and crossed the start/finish line after 40 laps to secure his third consecutive GP2 feature race victory of the season, and his seventh in the series. He finished six seconds ahead of Rossi who reduced his speed, with Leal third on the road, but was issued with a ten-second time penalty upon being judged by the stewards to have been unsafely released from his pit stall.^[18] Hence, Canamasas inherited third-place, ahead of Pic and Sirotkin. Leal, Stanaway, Maricello, King and Yelloly rounded out the top-ten points-scoring finishers. Binder, de Jong, Lynn, Gasly and Vișoiu were the next five finishers, with Haryanto, Berthon, Nato, Stöckinger, Cecotto, Negrão and Amberg the last of the classified finishers.^[17]

Sprint race

The second event began at 16:10 local time on 23 May.^[16] Weather conditions at the start of the race were cooler than the previous day's event with dark clouds in the sky and a chance of rain. The air temperature was at 17 °C (63 °F) with an track temperature of 23 °C (73 °F). All cars elected to start on the soft compound tyres.^[22] Evans did not start the event because his car stopped on the track's halfway section while driving to his starting position.^[23][24] Sørensen stalled in his grid position but was unable to start shortly afterwards before he was issued with a ten-second time penalty because his mechanics were tending to his car after the 15-second signal was given. Matsushita was required to start from the pit lane because of his collision with de Jong in the feature event. When the race started, pole position starter Maricello made a slow start and was overtaken around the outside by Stanaway heading into the first corner.^[23][24] Maricello fended off challenges by Sirotkin, Leal and Canamasas.^[25] Rossi damaged his nosecone and front wing in a collision with the rear of Pic's car but continued.^[22][23] Cecotto squeezed Amberg sideways into the barriers while driving up the hill to Massenet corner,^[24] forcing the retirement of both cars.^[23]

Jordan King (pictured in 2014) went airborne after a collision with Pierre Gasly in the race's late period.

Shortly afterwards Nato, Haryanto and Binder went three abreast at the Casino hairpin which saw Haryanto squeezed wide at the corner's exit by Nato and was unable to leave the turn, causing a brief usage of the VSC to allow the three cars to be extracted from the circuit by a trackside crane.^[23][24] Nato was able to continue but made a pit stop for repairs and was issued with a ten-second time penalty because he was judged to have caused the collision.^[24] The race resumed on the second lap with Stanaway leading Maricello and Sirotkin. Stanaway pulled away from the rest of the field.^[25] Leal was overtaken for fourth place by Canamasas at Sainte Dévote on the seventh lap's start and narrowly made the corner.^[23][24] Stanaway led the field by three seconds at the race's mid-way point while Maricello was two seconds in front of Sirotkin.^[23] Stanaway's team cautioned him about the possibility of his tyres degrading if he continued to push hard.^[24] Few overtaking manoeuvres took place as the field spread out. Rossi and Vandoorne intentionally fell back from the leaders and both drivers started to record fastest lap times in an effort of earning the accolade of one point for setting the event's fastest lap.^[22] Vandoorne temporarily claimed the award with a lap time of one minute and 21.926 seconds,^[24] before Nato gained the accolade on the 30th lap with a time of one minute and 21.886 seconds.^[21]

King had battled with Gasly for most of the race and continued to apply pressure to Gasly despite not being able to pass him.^[22] He became more frustrated at Gasly's blocking manoeuvres and complained that the latter drove straight across the chicane on lap 24.^[24][25] On the following lap,^[23] King gained momentum leaving the tunnel and Gasly was slower than the former. King's front-left tyre made contact with the right-rear of the DAMS car, launching him into the air.^[24] He went down the escape road at high speed and became the race's fourth (and final) retirement with heavy damage to his car.^[23][24] King was unhurt and Gasly retired from the event.^[24] He was transported to the local hospital for a precautionary check-up which found bruising but no serious injuries.^[26] Having been behind him for most of the race, Markelov braked later than Binder and got ahead of him around the outside at Sainte Dévote on lap 28,^[27] and later passed Berthon to move into 14th position.^[24]

Stanaway drifted at La Rascasse corner after his car's rear gave way and narrowly avoided hitting the wall on the race's final lap. He regained control of his car and crossed the start/finish line to win the race.^[25] Marciello finished second, two seconds behind the race winner and Sirotkin took third. Canamasas secured fourth, and Leal was fifth. Pic, Rossi and Vandoorne filled the remainder of the points-scoring positions and were all separated by 2.5 seconds. Yelloly and Gasly rounded out the top ten. Lynn, de Jong, Vișoiu, Markelov and Berthon followed in the next five places, while Binder, Negrão, Stöckinger, Matushita, Sørensen and Nato were the last of the classified finishers.^[23] The victory was Stanaway's first in the GP2 Series and the maiden triumph for his team Status Grand Prix following its take over of the former Caterham Racing entry.^[28] Stanaway's victory was the best success for a New Zealand driver at Monaco since Denny Hulme won the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix.^[29]

Post-round

The top three drivers of both races appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and at a later press conference. After the first race, Vandoorne said his third victory of the season was a special feeling and that he had had to work hard to achieve the win. He revealed that he was happy to have overtaken Rossi in the pit lane having felt he was slightly faster than him before he made his pit stop and praised his mechanics for installing his car's tyres in a fast time period.^[30] Rossi admitted that he was disappointed not to win the event as he was aware that it would be difficult to remain in front of those who had the super soft tyres installed on their cars heading into the first corner but was not worried over the issue because he was aware that they would make early pit stops.^[30] Canamasas felt "very happy" that he finished in third place and that achieving another podium position result in Monaco was "an amazing feeling". He said he was aware that he had to overtake Pic as soon as he could because he knew that Pic had more grip than him.^[30]

Stanaway said that it felt quite "surreal" that he had won in Monaco and that it was the ideal place to secure his first victory in the series. He stated that the series was still new to him and it was a "fantastic feeling" that he achieved success in his third race weekend.^[29] He hoped that he would improve as the season progressed.^[31] His team's managing director David Kennedy stated that it was "the best result that you can have in your maiden GP2 season" and praised Stanaway for demonstrating his speed and talent.^[29] Marciello said that his second-place result would serve to bring positive motivation for his team but that they needed reminding that the result came during the shorter sprint race and hoped that they would secure a podium finish in Austria's feature event.^[31] Sirotkin said that his sprint race went better than the previous day's longer feature event as he felt that he should have a secured a podium finish in that race. The driver stated that the first podium of his GP2 Series career in Monaco was "a great feeling" but stated he should have been battling for a podium position in the season's first two rounds.^[31]

King was issued a three-place grid place penalty by the stewards for his role in the collision with Gasly which was served at the season's next race in Austria. He said that it was a "disappointing" conclusion to the race weekend and revealed that he and Gasly discussed the incident and the pair had no issue regarding the matter.^[26] Gasly said that his team had hoped for a better result in Monaco but the car's amount of performance was not the reason that his team was unable to score points. He further stated that while he was happy with the behaviour of his vehicle he was afflicted with misfortune: "I put my head down and fought my way back, but when you start from so far back on the grid in Monaco scoring points is a hopeless task."^[32]

The result of the round meant Vandoorne increased his advantage in the Drivers' Championship on 114 points. Rossi's strong results meant he moved into second place, 40 points behind Vandoorne, while Haryanto's poor form meant he fell to third. Despite not scoring any points in the round, Evans and Lynn remained in fourth and fifth positions with 28 and 25 points respectively.^[5] ART Grand Prix extended its lead over Racing Engineering in the Teams' Championship to be two more points ahead of the Spanish team. Campos Racing remained in third position on 68 points, and had increased their advantage over DAMS in fourth place, while Russian Time rounded out the top five with eight rounds left in the season.^[6]

Qualifying

Group A

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Grid
1	11	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	1:40.357	2
2	5	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1:41.124	4
3	3	Julián Leal	Carlin	1:41.655	6
4	7	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1:41.895	8
5	17	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	1:42.150	10
6	1	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	1:42.248	12
7	23	Richie Stanaway	Status Grand Prix	1:42.425	14
8	27	Zoël Amberg	Team Lazarus	1:42.539	16
9	9	Mitch Evans	Russian Time	1:42.804	18
10	15	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	1:42.913	20
11	25	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Hilmer Motorsport	1:43.386	22
12	21	Norman Nato	Arden International	1:44.286	24
13	19	Robert Vișoiu	Rapax	1:44.475	26
Source:[21]

Group B

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Grid
1	8	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	1:37.019	1
2	14	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1:37.617	3
3	18	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	1:38.391	5
4	24	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	1:38.618	7
5	16	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	1:38.691	9
6	6	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:39.020	11
7	10	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	1:39.073	13
8	20	André Negrão	Arden International	1:39.142	15
9	2	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1:39.186	17
10	4	Marco Sørensen	Carlin	1:39.532	19
11	12	René Binder	Trident	1:39.539	21
12	26	Nathanaël Berthon	Team Lazarus	1:40.101	23
13	22	Marlon Stöckinger	Status Grand Prix	1:41.503	25
Source:[21]

Feature race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	40	58:12.368	4	25
2	8	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	40	+6.292	1	18
3	16	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	40	+16.726	9	15
4	14	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	40	+17.813	3	12
5	18	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	40	+20.691	5	10
6	3	Julián Leal	Carlin	40	+25.164	6	8
7	23	Richie Stanaway	Status Grand Prix	40	+25.470	14	6
8	11	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	40	+26.803	2	4
9	7	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	40	+31.339	8	2
10	24	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	40	+42.915	7	1
11	12	René Binder	Trident	40	+43.837	21
12	17	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	40	+45.528	10
13	2	Alex Lynn	DAMS	40	+46.824	17
14	1	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	40	+47.666	12
15	19	Robert Vișoiu	Rapax	40	+49.290	26
16	15	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	40	+51.085	20
17	26	Nathanaël Berthon	Team Lazarus	40	+52.135	23
18	21	Norman Nato	Arden International	40	+1:02.735	24
19	22	Marlon Stöckinger	Status Grand Prix	40	+1:07.600	25
20	25	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Hilmer Motorsport	40	+1:07.999	22
21	20	André Negrão	Arden International	39	+1 Lap	15
22	27	Zoël Amberg	Team Lazarus	39	+1 Lap	16
Ret	9	Mitch Evans	Russian Time	18	Retired	18
Ret	10	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	12	Retired	13
Ret	4	Marco Sørensen	Carlin	10	Retired	19
Ret	6	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	7	Retired	11
Fastest lap: Nick Yelloly (Hilmer Motorsport) — 1:22.314 (on lap 23)
Source:[21]

Sprint race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	23	Richie Stanaway	Status Grand Prix	30	42:45.918	4	15
2	11	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	30	+2.038	3	12
3	18	Sergey Sirotkin	Rapax	30	+3.207	6	10
4	16	Sergio Canamasas	MP Motorsport	30	+5.698	8	8
5	3	Julián Leal	Carlin	30	+13.479	4	6
6	14	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	30	+20.637	7	4
7	8	Alexander Rossi	Racing Engineering	30	+22.119	9	2
8	5	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	30	+23.103	10	1
9	24	Nick Yelloly	Hilmer Motorsport	30	+33.361	1
10	1	Pierre Gasly	DAMS	30	+45.367	14
11	2	Alex Lynn	DAMS	30	+46.007	13
12	17	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	30	+47.018	12
13	19	Robert Vișoiu	Rapax	30	+47.331	15
14	10	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	30	+47.697	24
15	26	Nathanaël Berthon	Team Lazarus	30	+50.015	17
16	12	René Binder	Trident	30	+58.315	11
17	20	André Negrão	Arden International	30	+58.464	21
18	22	Marlon Stöckinger	Status Grand Prix	30	+59.823	19
19	6	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	30	+1:00.570	26
20	4	Marco Sørensen	Carlin	30	+1:08.579	25
21	21	Norman Nato	Arden International	30	+1:10.989	18
Ret	7	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	24	Retired	2
Ret	27	Zoël Amberg	Team Lazarus	0	Retired	22
Ret	15	Rio Haryanto	Campos Racing	0	Retired	16
Ret	25	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Hilmer Motorsport	0	Retired	20
DNS	9	Mitch Evans	Russian Time	–	Did not start	23
Fastest lap: Norman Nato (Arden International) — 1:21.886 (on lap 17)
Source:[21]