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Rio drives to second victory in Spielberg
Rio Haryanto - Courtesy of Rio HaryantoIndonesian GP2 driver Rio Haryanto sped to his second victory of the season at the sprint race in Spielberg, Austria, on Sunday
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Rio Haryanto - Courtesy of Rio Haryanto
Indonesian GP2 driver Rio Haryanto sped to his second victory of the season at the sprint race in Spielberg, Austria, on Sunday.
Rio, who started second on the grid, outpaced British poleman Nick Yelloly of Hilmer Motorsport on the inside line into turn one.
Racing Engineering driver Alexander Rossi, who tried to go to the outside, made it three's a crowd and caused a collision with Yelloly. The American managed to step back into the race but Yelloly was out.
Russian Artem Markelov took over the second position thanks to the collision, was pushing everything he had for his first win, but Rio was up for the challenge. The Indonesian pulled away in the fast sections to square off. in lap 13,markelov was overtaken by stoffel vandoorne who trailed closely behind Rio in the remaining lap.
In the end, Rio ' who races for the Campos Racing team ' finished the race in 35 minutes and 57.944 seconds, or 1.3 seconds ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne of Belgium and Japan's Nobuharu Matsushita who finished third with 35:58.849.
Markelov was reportedly excluded from Sunday's race results after it was found that his car had less than one liter of fuel remaining after the finish, which is in breach of the technical regulations. It promotes Rossi to eighth in Sunday's result and earned him the final point of the day.
'It [the race] was a really rough one especially since we've seen in qualifying that the difference in performance between the cars is small. During the race, the difference is still small and I think that with the DRS [drag reduction system] the guy behind me was easily catching me down the straight,' Rio said as quoted by gp2series.com.
'At one point, Markelov tried to overtake me down turn three. I was able to avoid him because he drove at the last minute. I opened the door and I tried to cut him back but we had a contact and it damaged my front wing. After that, the car was struggling with under steer. I didn't give up, I tried to do the best I could. To get my second victory is amazing,' he added.
The win gave Rio 15 points to close up to 70 to be in third behind Vandoorne who topped the drivers' standings with 155 points followed by Rossi with 78.
Asked about the next race in Silverstone next month, Rio said that he hoped to score some good points in the track he considers the hardest on the tires.
'I came second two years ago in the sprint race, so I'm looking forward to it. I think we have a good chance to score some good points there,' he said.
Rio is a multiple GP3 winner. Since his first full-season GP2 participation in 2012 with Carlin, he has secured several podiums but has never won a GP2 race.
The 22-year-old racer took part in F1 tests in Abu Dhabi in 2010 and Silverstone in 2012, when he met the eligibility requirements for obtaining a super-license, becoming the first Indonesian driver ever to get one.
