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Rio Haryanto scores maiden victory in Bahrain
Rio Haryanto - Antara Indonesian race driver Rio Haryanto has finally made a breakthrough in his career, winning his first competition in the Bahrain sprint race on Sunday after four years competing in GP2 races
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Rio Haryanto - Antara
Indonesian race driver Rio Haryanto has finally made a breakthrough in his career, winning his first competition in the Bahrain sprint race on Sunday after four years competing in GP2 races.
Rio, who represents the Campos Racing team, lined up seventh on the reversed grid after finishing second in Saturday's feature race, and achieved the best time of 41:35.490 seconds for 23 laps.
ART Grand Prix driver Stoffel Vandoorne of Belgium finished three seconds behind Rio in second, followed by Lazarus driver Nathanael Berthon of France, who clocked 41:41.128.
'It's been a long time coming for me. The last race that I won was actually in GP3 in Hungary in 2011. I've been fighting a lot in my years in GP2, trying to get a win, and I've made some mistakes,' Rio said as quoted by gp2series.com.
The win was set up at the start with an impressive getaway from seventh on the grid: poleman Julian Leal made a decent start, while fellow front-row starter Berthon stuttered, with Mitch Evans just failing to pass the Colombian Leal at the first corner.
Rio was soon on a charge, blasting around the outside of Evans at turn one on lap three while Vandoorne started to slice through the field as he chased a second podium place for the weekend. Four laps later, the Indonesian made short work of Leal as he blasted into the lead on the outside of turn one once again, and started building a gap between himself and his pursuers.
As the laps rolled down, tire management was coming to the fore, but Rio used his experience to hold position. Vandoorne didn't have enough to catch the Indonesian but his second podium finish secured his lead in the points.
'Today, finally, everything just came together. I had a great start and a great first lap. I was able to get into the lead quite early in the race. After that, I was able to maintain the gap to my closest rival until the end. It was a perfect race for me,' added the 21-year-old racer.
Vandoorne leads the drivers' championship after the first round ahead of Rio, 43 points to 33, with Rossi in third with 23 points ahead of Berthon on 16, Jordan King and Visoiu on 12, Leal on 10 and Evans on 8 points as the grid looks toward the next round of the championship in Barcelona.
'What happened this weekend is a real boost and makes me confident. I have to believe that I'm able to achieve more,' Rio said.
