The second race of the Valencia Auto GP weekend crowned Rio Haryanto: the Indonesian driver, that this year already got on the podium in Brno and showed a steadily improving trend throughout the whole season, finally made the most of his potential clinching a dominating success.
Starting from third on the grid, the DAMS driver was really quick off the line, immediately passing Samuele Buttarelli and so taking second place behind Adam Carroll, who had a good start from pole position. Boasting a much better pace compared to his rival's, Rio got quickly on the Brit's tail and started putting pressure on him. Carroll tried to keep him at bay closing all the gaps for some laps, but on lap 5 he left a bit of room on the inside of Turn 2, and Haryanto immediately dived in completing a clear pass. From then on the Indonesian just flew away, and the fastest laptime of the race posted on lap 6 was just the icing on the cake for his great performance.
Behind the young asian talent the fight was really hot: Carroll had to keep his eyes in the mirrors because behind him a charging Buttarelli was getting closer and closer. The Italian driver was clearly quicker than Adam and he stayed on the Brit's tail for the whole race, trying also some moves that never led to a real overtaking chance. So Carroll managed to resist, and the two crossed the line with just a 0”8 gap between them, taking respectively the 5th and 4th podium of the season for their teams, Campos Racing and TP Formula.
In his home race, team owner Adrian Campos could also celebrate Adrien Tambay's 4th place: the frenchman had a bad start but despite this he managed to keep P4, defending it through the whole race from attacks by Fabrizio Crestani and Fabio Onidi. The Lazarus duo seemed a bit quicker, but never enough to try an overtaking move on a tight track as Valencia. Despite the circuit's layout not offering many chances, Onidi managed to complete a great pass on Adrian Campos Jr, diving on the inside of the Spaniard on the last turn of lap 9 with a very brave late braking manoeuvre.
Behind Onidi were Luca Filippi, who climbed from P12 to P7 thanks to a great start, and Kevin Ceccon. The Ombra Racing driver took one point, stretching his championship lead on Sergei Afanasiev; most of all, he secured the Under 21 title, as his advantage on the second placed driver, Giovanni Venturini, is now too big to be filled in Mugello. He wins a free GP2 test, waiting for what will happen in Tuscany for the overall classification.
Looking to the prize money, it's DAMS who can celebrate after winning both races this weekend: With 29 points and 26 points respectively, Haryanto and Afanasiev brought 60.000 and 25.000 euros home, while Onidi takes the 15.000 euros for third place with 22 points. Rio Haryanto: “I'm really happy of this first Auto GP win. I got very close to that in Brno and then it faded away, so today when I saw the chance I did all I could to take it. I had a great start and I managed to pass Buttarelli, and from then on I knew that the only chance I had was putting pressure on Adam, hoping for a mistake or for some room in a corner sooner or later. I also knew that it had to happen early in the race because then tyre wear would have made things more difficult. Luckily the 'plan' came together quite early, and from then on things were easier as my pace was really good. I want to say thanks to DAMS, they did a great job”.Adam Carroll: “My start was really good, and for a while I thought that the win was in my reach. Then, already on lap two, I realized that Rio was much quicker than me and that keeping him behind would have been tough. Then he passed me and flew away, after some changes we did on the set-up I just didn't have the pace to follow him. My next task was keeping Buttarelli at bay and again it wasn't easy, because on a track like this it's easy to overdrive if the car is not doing what you're expecting. Anyway I did it, and clinching a podium finish in my team's home race feels really good”.Samuele Buttarelli: “It was a tough race as I pushed from flag to flag. I didn't have a good start and Haryanto passed me, but I wanted to get my second place back so I sticked to Carroll's tail very early into the race. I tried all I could, but Adam was really good at defending his lines and on the other side I was losing a lot of downforce everytime I got close to him, stressing my front tyres too much. It's a pity because my pace was quicker than his, even if I have to say that getting Rio would have been difficult today. Anyway I can be happy with this third pace, it's a good result considering that I started my weeken with that penalty from Oschersleben”.Valencia, 4 September, Race 2 1 Rio HARYANTO Dams 17 laps in 24:42.401, avg. 165.34 km/h2 Adam CARROLL GBR Campos Racing +9.479 3 Samuele BUTTARELLI TP Formula +10.204 4 Adrien TAMBAY Campos Racing +11.597 5 Fabrizio CRESTANI Lazarus +11.773 6 Fabio ONIDI Lazarus +12.135 7 Luca FILIPPI Supernova Racing +14.7328 Kevin CECCON Ombra Racing +17.155 9 Giovanni VENTURINI Griffitz Durango +18.01110 Pasquale DI SABATINO TP Formula +19.728 11 Daniel DEJONG MP Motorsport +21.469 12 Giuseppe CIPRIANI Griffitz Durango +31.581 13 Francesco DRACONE Ombra Racing +32.811 14 Sergei AFANASIEV Dams +1:01.395 15 Adrian CAMPOS JR Campos Racing +2 LAPSFastest LapRio HARYANTO, Dams in 1:25.644, avg. 168.34 km/hPrize Money Classification: 1 Haryanto, 60.000 euro (29 punti); 2. Afanasiev, 25.000 euro (26 punti); 3. Onidi, 15.000 euro (22 punti).Drivers Standings: 1. Ceccon 116; 2. Afanasiev 109; 3. Filippi 101; 4. Tambay 84; 5. Buttarelli 79; 6. Onidi 78; 7. Venturini e Crestani 76; 9. Haryanto 58; 10. Lancaster 51. Under 21 Standings: 1. Ceccon 194 (Campione); 2. Venturini 131; 3. Buttarelli 128; 4. Tambay 120; 5. Haryanto 109; 6. Mendez 71; 7. de Jong 59; 8. Korjus 18; 9. Bizzarri 10.Team Standings: 1. DAMS 206; 2. SuperNova 155; 3. Lazarus 153; 4. Campos Racing 137; 5. Ombra 122; 6. TP Formula 109; 7. Griffitz Durango 78; 8. Mp Motorsport 19; 9. Emmebi 1.
