Scuderia Coloni Spa GP2 Feature Race review

GOOD RECOVERY FOR SCUDERIA COLONI AND ONIDI IN LONGEST EVER GP2 FEATURE RACE Fabio Onidi closed the first race of the Spa GP2 weekend in 16th place while Stefano Coletti had to retire after a race incident with three laps to go.This was the result of one of the oddest Saturdays in GP2s history, a day that saw the race interrupted for one hour and a half due to a big crash by Oceans Nigel Melker at Raidillon: while the driver was flown to the nearby hospital for medical checks, the Spa crew took a long time to repair the tyre barriers.That meant that the first part of the race lasted only seven laps, with a Safety-Car from lap 3 on because of the big shunt. In that time Onidi, who had made a great start passing from P24 to P16 in just a few corners, elected to pit like most of his rivals but luck wasnt on his side as he had to brake in order to avoid being hit by Valsecchi, who had been released unsafely by his pit-crew. Fabios car stalled and the lost time demoted him to P21, partly wasting his great recovery. Coletti, in the meantime, decided to delay his tyre change a bit more and this meant that when the red flag was waved he was 4th and one of the few drivers that still had to pit.At the restart the Scuderia Coloni cars were lined up on second row (Coletti) and eleventh row (Onidi), and both were quick off the line. Coletti immediately passed Trummer for 3rd place and flew away together with Van der Garde and Richelmi to build a gap on the competition before the pit-stop. For several laps the driver from Monaco was the quickest of the field, but despite that his advantage on his rivals when he finally entered the pits wasnt enough to come back on track in the top ten. He was just out of it instead, and while he tried to overtake Guerin at the Bust Stop chicane the two collided, both retiring from the race. A blameless Onidi was also involved: the Italian was immediately behind the pair and without any room to pass  he couldnt avoid hitting Guerins stranded car, damaging his Dallara and ending the race in P16. It was a big pity because at the second start Fabio had made up five places, and his recovery through the race had brought him further up to P12 before the incident occurred.

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