• GP2, German Grand Prix, Race 2

Lancaster holds off Calado for second sprint race win

Jon Lancaster took his second successive sprint race win © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• German GP2 round

• Drivers:
• James Calado
• |
• Jon Lancaster
• |
• Fabio Leimer

• Teams:
• ART Grand Prix
• |
• Hilmer Motorsport
• |
• Racing Engineering

Jon Lancaster made it two sprint race victories in a row as he held off James Calado at the Nurburgring.

Lancaster made a good start from second on the grid to lead from the Turn 1 to the flag, with Calado unable to mount a sustained challenge despite closing the gap to less than a second at times. Fabio Leimer was a distant third ahead of Felipe Nasr, who took advantage of a poor race for Stefano Coletti to close the gap in the championship.

In a scrappy start, pole-sitter Tom Dillmann was one of a number of drivers to have a poor launch while third-placed man Robin Frijns also went backwards. That allowed Lancaster to lead away before an safety car period caused by Stephane Richelmi's stricken DAMS having collided with Nigel de Jong.

On the restart, Lancaster quickly pulled away but Calado passed Dillmann for second in to Turn 4 to lead the chase. Frijns climbed back up through the field having been 11th on the first lap, but having passed Nasr he then attacked Sam Bird for fourth and hit him in Turn 3, resulting in Frijns' retirement.

Dillmann hit trouble and pit numerous times, releasing Leimer in to third, while Nasr passed Bird for at Turn 4 with 5 laps remaining and then feature race winner Marcus Ericsson soon after. The field had bunched up behind Ericsson and Johnny Cecotto attacked Bird in to Turn 4 but hit the rear of the Russian Time car, sending him wide and dropping him back to ninth place.

Cecotto went on to pass Ericsson finish fifth but is under investigation for causing a collision, while Ericsson dropped out of the points as he lost three places in three corners with Alexander Rossi, Mitch Evans and Bird all passing on the penultimate lap.

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