2015 Monaco GP2 Series round

Background

The 2015 Monaco GP2 Series round was the third of eleven scheduled events in 2015. It was held on 22 and 23 May 2015 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco and was run in support of the 2015 Formula One Monaco Grand Prix. The races were contested by thirteen teams of two drivers each. The teams were: DAMS, Carlin, ART Grand Prix, Racing Engineering, Russian Time, Trident, Campos Racing, MP Motorsport, Rapax, Arden International, Status Grand Prix, Hilmer Motorsport and Lazarus. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought three types of tyre to the round; two dry compounds (super soft "options" and soft "primes") and one wet-weather compound. The supersoft tyres were identified by a red stripe on their side-walls, and the soft tyres were similarly identified with yellow. The drag reduction system (DRS) had one activation zone for the race: on the main straight linking the final and first turns.

Before the race, ART Grand Prix driver Stoffel Vandoorne led the Drivers' Championship with 86 points, 37 ahead of nearest rival Rio Haryanto, who in turn, was a further three in front of Alexander Rossi in third. Mitch Evans was fourth on 28 points, and Alex Lynn was three points behind him in fifth place. ART Grand Prix were leading the Teams' Championship with 93 points; Racing Engineering were six points ahead of Campos Racing in the battle for second position. DAMS were in fourth on 41 points, and Russian Time rounded out the top five on 34 points. Three different drivers had won the first four events of the season with Vandoorne the only driver to have won twice. Evans and Haryanto had finished in second once, and Rossi, Nathanaël Berthon and Pierre Gasly had each achieved third-place podium finishes.

Practice and qualifying

One 45-minute practice session was held on Thursday before the two races. The session was held on a dry race track after having dried up from earlier rain. Arthur Pic was the fastest driver with a time of one minute and 20.556 seconds, two-tenths of a second faster than Rossi in second. Gasly was third-fastest, ahead of Vandoorne. Sergio Canamasas and Raffaele Marciello were fifth and sixth. Richie Stanaway was seventh-fastest, André Negrão eighth, Haryanto ninth and Norman Nato completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. Evans caused an brief early red flag period when he stopped his car at the top of the hall entering Massenet corner, and was unable to set a timed lap. Canamasas went into the Sainte Devote run-off area, and Marco Sørensen locked his tyres, causing him hit the barriers at Rascasse corner, and reversed out of the turn. Daniël de Jong stopped his car at the Novelle chicane because his car was affected by a mechanical failure.

Friday afternoon's qualifying session ran for 30-minutes. Qualifying was divided into two groups of thirteen cars, with the odd numbered vehicles in Group A and the even numbered cars in Group B. The drivers' fastest lap times determined the starting order for the first race. The driver who won the pole position was awarded four points that went towards the Drivers' and Teams' Championship races. Light rain fell as the session started with some drivers electing to equip the super soft tyres to their cars while other competitors chose to utilise wet-weather compounds. Rossi clinched the second pole position of his GP2 Series career with a time of one minute and 37.019 seconds. The achievement ended Vandoorne's run of consecutive pole positions which started at the 2014 Spa-Francorchamps round. He was joined on the grid's front row by Marciello who was three-tenths of a second off Rossi's pace and had the pole until the latter's lap. Marciello pushed hard during the session and narrowly avoided losing control of his car at Massenet's barriers. Pic qualified third and Vandoorne was fourth. Sergey Sirotkin improved his lap time late in the qualifying period to start from fifth place. He shared the third row with Julián Leal who was ahead of Nick Yelloly and Jordan King. Canamasas and de Jong completed the top ten qualifiers; de Jong slid into the Mirabeau barrier in qualifying's closing minutes.

Nobuharu Matsushita was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten positions; his fastest time was two seconds slower than Rossi's pole position lap. Gasly went deep into Sainte Devote but did not damage his car en route to qualifying 12th. Artem Markelov followed in 13th, ahead of Stanaway who damaged his front wing in a light collision with the Mirabeau barrier which required him to enter the pit lane for a replacement nose cone. Negrão filled the inside of the eighth row in 15th, with Zoël Amberg behind him in 16th who aquaplaned because of an oversteer off the circuit and heavily hit the exit Tabac corner barrier, removing his right-rear wheel. The two were followed by Lynn and Evans; the latter overshot the entry to Sainte Devote but avoided damaging his vehicle. Sørensen's vehicle briefly launched into the air after driving over the kerbs through the swimming pool complex and qualified in 19th position. René Binder and Johnny Cecotto Jr. started from 20th and 21st positions; Cecotto went into Mirabeau's run-off area but avoided damaging his vehicle. Berthon qualified in 22nd and Haryanto was issued with a three-place starting penalty for being unable to slow sufficiently during a yellow flag period in the track's second sector and started from 23rd. Nato, Marlon Stöckinger and Robert Vișoiu were the last of the qualifiers.

Races

The first race was held over either 140 kilometres (87 mi) or 60 minutes and all drivers were required to make one pit stop. The first ten finishers scored points, with two being awarded to the competitor who recorded the fastest lap. The starting order for the second event was determined by the finishing positions of the first race with the first eight drivers in reverse order. It was run over either 100 kilometres (62 mi) or 45 minutes and drivers were not allowed to make pit stops. The top eight finishers scored points which counted towards both championships.

Feature race

Weather conditions at the start of the race were sunny and warm with an air temperature of 19 °C (66 °F) and a track temperature of 28 °C (82 °F). The race started at 11:10 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) on 22 May. Matsushita stalled his car on his starting position because of a loss of oil pressure, and five other drivers stalled shortly afterwards, prompting marshals to push them away from the grid. A further delay was caused during the wait for the stalled cars when confusion arose over who started where, and it was later decided to perform another formation lap, causing the race's distance to be shortened by one lap. Gasly was judged to have jumped the start and was required to begin the race from the pit lane. When the race started 20 minutes later after one extra lap was removed from the race distance, Maricello made a fast getaway and moved in front of Rossi to take over the lead around the outside heading into the first turn. Further down the field, Amberg damaged his front wing and made a pit stop for repairs at the end of the first lap. Pic maintained third position from Vandoorne, while Stanaway made the best start in the field, moving from 14th to tenth, while King made up three positions over the same distance. Maricello held a 2.1 second lead over Rossi by the end of lap one as he had the super soft tyres equipped on his car.

Maricello's super soft tyres began to degrade quickly which allowed Rossi and Vandoorne to close the gap over the next two laps. Rossi caught up to Maricello by the start of the sixth lap but the Italian driver remained on the circuit. King, who was held up a long queue of vehicles behind him, was the first driver to make a scheduled pit stop on the same lap and rejoined the track in clear air. On lap eight, Matsushita heavily collided with de Jong at the Novelle chicane, causing him to retire and was later penalised with a three-place grid penalty for the sprint race after the stewards judged him to have missed the corner's braking point. de Jong was able to continue. Marciello made his pit stop for new tyres on the next lap, allowing Rossi and Vandoorne to move into the first and second places and both drivers built an advantage over the remainder of the field. Maricello rejoined in eleventh, behind Pic, who made his pit stop one lap later. Sørensen was placed into the Casino Hairpin barriers at the apex of the corner by Nato on lap ten, forcing his retirement. Nato was issued with a ten-second time penalty, but no safety car was deployed. Marvelov retired from the race in the pit lane with damage to his car after running off the circuit, and drove over a kerb exiting the left-hand Louis Chiron corner, causing him to become airborne, and hit the barriers lining the circuit.

Rossi held a one-second lead over Vandoorne who pushed hard so he would remain within distance of the American driver. Evans attempted to overtake Yelloly leaving the tunnel at the chicane but Yellowly steered into Evans, who was forced to retire from the event on lap 18. The incident necessitated the activation of the virtual safety car (VSC) to allow track officials to clean the circuit. Rossi and Vandoorne elected to make pit stops for super soft tyres during the VSC with Vandoorne emerging in the lead of the race. Leal moved into third despite making contact with Sirotkin. At the race's restart, Vandoorne extended his advantage over Rossi by 3.4 seconds in the course of one lap until Rossi drove two seconds faster on the following lap and was half a second behind the Belgian driver by the 23rd lap. Yelloly set the feature race's fastest time on the same lap, completing a circuit in one minute and 22.314 seconds. Vandoorne's and Rossi's releases from their pit stall were investigated by the stewards but chose to take no action. A brief second VSC was deployed when debris was located in the run up to Rascasse corner. Canamasas overtook Pic at Sainte Devote to move into fourth at the beginning of the 28th lap.

With ten laps of the race remaining, Rossi reported to his team via radio that his front tyres were degrading, while Vandoorne was experiencing the same issue. King quickly closed the gap to Yelloly and overtook the driver for ninth place on the 32nd lap. Vandoorne held the lead for the remainder of the race and crossed the start/finish line after 40 laps to secure his third consecutive GP2 feature race victory of the season, and the seventh in the series. He finished six seconds ahead of Rossi who reduced his speed, with Leal third on the road, but was issued with a ten-second time penalty after being judged by the stewards to have been unsafely released from his pit stall. As a result, Canamasas inherited third-place ahead of Pic and Sirotkin. Leal, Stanaway, Maricello, King and Yelloly rounded out the points-scoring finishers. Binder, de Jong, Lynn, Gasly and Vișoiu were the next five finishers, while Haryanto, Berthon, Nato, Stöckinger, Cecotto, Negrão and Amberg were the last of the classified finishers.

Sprint race

The second event began at 16:10 local time on 23 May. Weather conditions at the start of the race were cooler than the previous day's event with dark clouds in the sky with a chance of rain. The air temperature was at 17 °C (63 °F) with an track temperature of 23 °C (73 °F). All cars elected to start the race on the soft compound tyres. Evans did not start the event because his car stopped on the track's halfway section while making his way to his starting position. Sørensen stalled in his starting position but was unable to start shortly afterwards before he was issued with a ten-second time penalty because his mechanics were tending to his car after the 15-second signal was given. Matsushita was required to start from the pit lane because of his collision with de Jong in the feature event. When the race started, pole position starter Maricello made a slow start and was overtaken by Stanaway around the outside heading into the first corner. Maricello fended off challenges by Sirotkin, Leal and Canamasas. Rossi damaged his nosecone and front wing in a collision with the rear-end of Pic's car but continued. Cecotto squeezed Amberg sideways into the barriers while driving up the hill to Massenet corner, forcing both cars to retire.

Shortly afterwards Nato, Haryanto and Binder went three abreast at the Casino hairpin which saw Haryanto squeezed wide at the corner's exit by Nato and was unable to leave the area, causing a brief usage of the VSC to allow the three cars to be extracted from the circuit by a trackside crane. Nato was able to continue but made a pit stop for repairs and was issued with a ten-second time penalty as he was judged to have caused the collision. The race resumed on the second lap with Stanaway leading Maricello and Sirotkin. Stanaway pulled away from the rest of the field. Leal was overtaken for fourth position by Canamasas at Sainte Devote on the seventh lap's start and narrowly made the corner. Stanaway led the field by three seconds at the race's mid-way point while Maricello was two seconds in front of Sirotkin. Stanaway's team cautioned him about the possibility of his tyres degrading if he continued to push hard. Few overtaking manoeuvres took place as the field spread out. Rossi and Vandoorne intentionally fell off from the leaders and both drivers started to record fastest lap times in an effort of earning the accolade of one point for setting the event's fastest lap. Vandoorne temporarily claimed the award with a lap time of one minute and 21.926 seconds, before Nato gained the accolade on the 30th lap with a time of one minute and 21.886 seconds.

King had battled with Gasly for most of the race and continued to apply pressure to the French driver despite not being able to pass him. He became more frustrated at Gasly's blocking manoeuvres and complained that the DAMS driver had went straight across the chicane on lap 24. On the following lap, King gained momentum leaving the tunnel and Gasly was slower than the Racing Engineering driver and King's front-left tyre made contact with the right-rear of the DAMS car, launching him into the air. He went down the escape road at high speed and became the race's fourth (and final) retirement with heavy damage to his car. King was unhurt but Gasly retired from the event. He was transported to the local hospital for a precautionary check-up which found bruising but no serious injuries. Having been behind him for most of the race, Markelov outbraked Binder and got ahead of him around the outside of Sainte Devote on lap 28, and later passed Berthon to move into 14th position.

Stanaway lost control of his car's rear-end at the track's final corner and narrowly avoided hitting the wall on the race's final lap but regained control and crossed the start/finish line to win the race. Marciello finished second, two seconds behind the race winner and Sirotkin took third. Canamasas secured fourth, and Leal was fifth. Pic, Rossi and Vandoorne filled the remainder of the points-scoring positions and were all separated by 2.5 seconds. Yelloly and Gasly rounded out the top ten. Lynn, de Jong, Vișoiu, Markelov and Berthon followed in the next five places, while Binder, Negrão, Stöckinger, Matushita Sørensen and Nato were the last of the classified finishers. The victory was Stanaway's first in the GP2 Series and the maiden triumph for his team Status Grand Prix since it took over the former Caterham Racing entry. Stanaway's victory was the best success for a New Zealand driver at Monaco since Denny Hulme won the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix.

Post-round

The top three drivers of both races appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and at a later press conference. After the first race, Vandoorne said his third victory of the season was a special feeling and said the he had to work hard to achieve the win. He revealed that he was happy to have overtaken Rossi in the pit lane having felt he was slightly faster than him before he made his pit stop and praised his mechanics for installing his car's tyres in a fast time period. Rossi admitted that he was disappointed not to win the event as he was aware that it would be difficult to remain in front of the drivers who had the super soft tyres installed on their cars heading into the first corner but was not worried over the issue because was aware that they would make early pit stops. Canamasas felt very happy that he finished in third place and that achieving another podium position result in Monaco was "an amazing feeling". He said he was aware that he had to overtake Pic as soon as he could because he was aware that the French driver had more grip than him.

Stanaway said that it felt quite "surreal" that he had won in Monaco and that it was the ideal place to secure his first victory in the series. He stated that the series was still new to him and it was a "fantastic feeling" that he achieved success in third race weekend. He hoped that he would improve as the season progressed. His team's managing director David Kennedy stated that it was "the best result that you can have in your maiden GP2 season" and praised the driver for demonstrating his speed and talent. Marciello said that his second-place result would serve to bring positive motivation for his team but that they needed reminding that the result came during the shorter sprint race and hoped that they would secure podium finish in Austria's feature event. Sirotkin said that his sprint race went better than the previous day's longer feature event as he felt that he should have a secured a podium finish in that race. The driver stated that the first podium of his GP2 Series career in Monaco was "a great feeling" but stated in the season's first two rounds he should have been battling for a podium position.

King was issued a three-place grid place penalty by the stewards for his role in the collision with Gasly which he served at the season's next race in Austria. He said that it was a "disappointing" conclusion to the race weekend and revealed that he and Gasly discussed the incident and the pair had no issue regarding the matter. Gasly said that his team had hoped for a better result in Monaco but the car's amount of performance was not the reason that his team was unable to score points. He further stated he was happy with the behaviour of his vehicle but was afflicted with misfortune: "I put my head down and fought my way back, but when you start from so far back on the grid in Monaco scoring points is a hopeless task."

The result of the round meant Vandoorne increased his advantage in the Drivers' Championship on 114 points. Rossi's strong results meant he moved into second place, 40 points behind Vandoorne, while Haryanto's poor form meant he fell to third. Despite not scoring any points in the round, Evans and Lynn remained in fourth and fifth positions with 28 and 25 points respectively. ART Grand Prix extended its lead over Racing Engineering in the Teams' Championship to be two more points ahead of the Spanish team. Campos Racing remained in third position on 68 points, and had increased their advantage over DAMS in fourth place, while Russian Time rounded out the top five, with eight rounds left in the season.

Qualifying

Standings after the round