GP2 Nurburgring Race 1
The weather for the GP2 Feature Race was much warmer that it had been for qualifying with an air temperature of 25 and a track temperature of 44. Fabio Leimer and Julian Leal, Racing Engineerings two drivers, lined up 6th and 24th on the grid for the 34 lap, 175.032 km, race and with a choice of either the Pirelli Medium or Super Soft compounds there was no consensus as to which tyre to start the race on with some drivers, including Fabio and Julin, opting for the Medium tyre whilst others chose to start on the softer option.
As the lights went off Quaife-Hobbs stalled and there was contact between three cars at the rear of the grid which resulted in the car of Quaife-Hobbs being hit by Ceccon causing a lot of damage to both cars, fortunately without injury to the drivers, and the Safety Car was deployed while the track was cleared. When the Safety Car returned to the pits at the end of lap 3 Fabio was lying in 6th and Julin in 22nd.
At the end of lap 4 Fabio was still in 6th, one second behind Calado and 0.6 seconds ahead of Binder, he gained a place on the following lap as Nasr made an early mandatory pit stop and was now chasing Calado with Rossi now 6th. Within two laps Fabio was up to 3rd as the cars ahead pitted and this became 2nd on lap 9.
Lap 11 saw Fabio stop take on four new medium compound tyres from the very efficient Racing Engineering pit crew, he resumed the track in 15th place but this became 16th as he was unable, on cold tyres, to prevent Rossi from overtaking. By lap 17, the halfway point in the race, Fabio was now 15th, 1.7 seconds behind Rossi and 3.3 ahead of Abt. Over the next few laps the Racing Engineering car began to close in onto the back of the Caterham car and he was now involved in a big eight car battle for 6th place.
Fabio continued to sit on the gearbox of the Rossi car but he had to drive carefully as he had Dillmann less than half a second behind him and on lap 27 he passed the American to take 9th place and one lap later he pulled off a great move to overtake Nasr and with Trummer making a very late pitstop the young Swiss was now in 6th place, one second behind Richelmi.
The race was now being run to a one hour time limit due to the earlier safety car period and as the cars fought for position on the 32nd and final lap, in an amazing move, Fabio passed both Richelmi and Frijns on the last corner to finish in a very well deserved 4th place.
Julian made a good start but after the Safety Car period he had a left the track resulting in a quick spin on lap 4, losing two places in the process but on lap 9 he gained a place as he made a great overtaking manoeuvre on Abt. The young Columbian was now in 16th as many of the cars ahead took their pitstops and by lap 13 Julin was up to 11th but he was still to take his pitstop and he continued to gain places as he stayed on the track, setting some very competitive lap times although his tyres were now getting worn.
Julian pitted from 7th place on lap 21 returning to the track in 22nd place and on lap 23 he set the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:43.041s. Unfortunately the Racing Engineering driver lost two places on lap 24 as a result of a drive-through penalty and, with the race reduced to 32 laps, he had to settle for 22nd place at the flag.
