2016 Silverstone GP2 Series round

The 2016 Silverstone GP2 Series round was a GP2 Series motor race held on 9 and 10 July 2016 at the Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom. It was the fifth round of the 2016 GP2 Series. The race weekend supported the 2016 British Grand Prix.

   2016 Silverstone GP2 round

Round details
Round 5 of 11 rounds in the 2016 GP2 Series
Layout of the Silverstone Circuit
Location	Silverstone Circuit Silverstone, United Kingdom
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.891 km (3.660 mi)
GP2 Series
Feature race
Date	9 July 2016
Laps	29
Pole position
Driver	Norman Nato	Racing Engineering
Time	1:38.216
Podium
First	Pierre Gasly	Prema Racing
Second	Antonio Giovinazzi	Prema Racing
Third	Oliver Rowland	MP Motorsport
Fastest lap
Driver	Mitch Evans	Campos Racing
Time	1:43.172 (on lap 24)
Sprint race
Date	10 July 2016
Laps	21
Podium
First	Jordan King	Racing Engineering
Second	Luca Ghiotto	Trident
Third	Oliver Rowland	MP Motorsport
Fastest lap
Driver	Luca Ghiotto	Trident
Time	1:44.199 (on lap 3)

Background

ART Grand Prix's Nobuharu Matsushita returned to the series after serving his one-round ban in Austria.

Report

Qualifying

In a somewhat controversial manner, Norman Nato achieved the fastest time of 1:38.216, thereby achieving his first pole position of the year. He was under investigation for setting his pole lap under red flag conditions. He was deemed by officials to set the lap time under green conditions and his pole time stood. Pierre Gasly achieved second place two-tenths behind Nato and Nicholas Latifi achieved a career-best of third.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Grid
1	3	Norman Nato	Racing Engineering	1:38.216	1
2	21	Pierre Gasly	Prema Racing	1:38.441	2
3	6	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1:38.797	3
4	9	Raffaele Marciello	Russian Time	1:38.842	4
5	2	Sergey Sirotkin	ART Grand Prix	1:38.904	PL ^1
6	20	Antonio Giovinazzi	Prema Racing	1:38.912	5
7	7	Mitch Evans	Campos Racing	1:39.084	6
8	4	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	1:39.123	7
9	12	Arthur Pic	Rapax	1:39.160	8
10	22	Oliver Rowland	MP Motorsport	1:39.192	9
11	10	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	1:39.370	10
12	1	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:39.572	11
13	19	Marvin Kirchhöfer	Carlin	1:39.668	12
14	18	Sergio Canamasas	Carlin	1:39.749	16 ^2
15	8	Sean Gelael	Campos Racing	1:39.750	13
16	11	Gustav Malja	Rapax	1:39.798	14
17	5	Alex Lynn	DAMS	1:39.928	15
18	23	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	1:40.459	17
19	25	Jimmy Eriksson	Arden International	1:40.838	18
20	24	Nabil Jeffri	Arden International	1:41.160	19
21	14	Philo Paz Armand	Trident	1:41.385	20
–	15	Luca Ghiotto	Trident	no time	21
Source:^[1]

Notes

1.^ – Sirotkin was penalised after he failed to stop at the weighbridge and the car was not brought back before the mechanics worked on it, thereby violating the parc ferme ruling. He started from the pitlane.^[2]

2.^ – Canamasas received a three-place grid penalty after having been deemed to demonstrate unsporting behaviour towards Oliver Rowland after the conclusion of practice.^[3]

Feature Race

The preferred tyre strategy for the feature race was often to start on the hard compound and then to switch to soft later in the race. Prema Racing went against this using the opposite strategy to great effect, with Pierre Gasly taking his maiden GP2 win from teammate Antonio Giovinazzi. Oliver Rowland also went with this strategy, achieving third despite struggling for grip in the dying laps. This result elevates both Prema drivers to first and second in the standings, with Evans maintaining third.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	21	Pierre Gasly	Prema Racing	29	51:39.383	2	25
2	20	Antonio Giovinazzi	Prema Racing	29	+9.422	5	18
3	22	Oliver Rowland	MP Motorsport	29	+16.090 ^1	9	15
4	7	Mitch Evans	Campos Racing	29	+21.667	6	12 (2)
5	15	Luca Ghiotto	Trident	29	+24.591	21	10
6	1	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	29	+25.165	11	8
7	3	Norman Nato	Racing Engineering	29	+25.474	1	6 (4)
8	4	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	29	+25.651	7	4
9	9	Raffaele Marciello	Russian Time	29	+31.757	4	2
10	10	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	29	+33.115	10	1
11	6	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	29	+34.220	3
12	19	Marvin Kirchhöfer	Carlin	29	+34.409	12
13	18	Sergio Canamasas	Carlin	29	+37.898	16
14	12	Arthur Pic	Rapax	29	+42.610	8
15	25	Jimmy Eriksson	Arden International	29	+55.205	18
16	5	Alex Lynn	DAMS	29	+56.604	15
17	24	Nabil Jeffri	Arden International	29	+57.490	13
18	2	Sergey Sirotkin	ART Grand Prix	29	+1:02.096	PL
19	23	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	29	+1:23.661	17
20	14	Philo Paz Armand	Trident	29	+1:39.764	20
21	8	Sean Gelael	Campos Racing	28	+1 Lap	13
22	11	Gustav Malja	Rapax	28	+1 Lap	14
Fastest lap:   Mitch Evans (Campos Racing) – 1:43.172 (on lap 24)
Source:

Notes

1.^ – Rowland was given a five-second time penalty for excessive over-use of track limits.^[4]

Sprint Race

The sprint race saw another dominant performance from Jordan King who led from start to finish despite a late charge from Luca Ghiotto. The race was rather calm for the most part until three-laps from the end when the rain started to descend upon the circuit. As the circuit became more and more slippery, the drivers soon found themselves struggling for grip. Norman Nato spun off and several others left the circuit. Rowland passed Matsushita in the final laps to achieve another podium, the only driver to do so throughout the weekend.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Jordan King	Racing Engineering	21	37:35.325	1	15
2	15	Luca Ghiotto	Trident	21	+0.580	4	12 (2)
3	22	Oliver Rowland	MP Motorsport	21	+11.664	6	10
4	20	Antonio Giovinazzi	Prema Racing	21	+11.786	7	8
5	1	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	21	+17.518	3	6
6	9	Raffaele Marciello	Russian Time	21	+20.467	9	4
7	21	Pierre Gasly	Prema Racing	21	+23.126	8	2
8	19	Marvin Kirchhöfer	Carlin	21	+25.873	12	1
9	18	Sergio Canamasas	Carlin	21	+26.721	13
10	6	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	21	+27.370	11
11	12	Arthur Pic	Rapax	21	+28.061	14
12	10	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	21	+28.632	10
13	7	Mitch Evans	Campos Racing	21	+28.844	5
14	5	Alex Lynn	DAMS	21	+29.598	16
15	24	Nabil Jeffri	Arden International	21	+31.284	17
16	23	Daniël de Jong	MP Motorsport	21	+32.249	19
17	25	Jimmy Eriksson	Arden International	21	+35.412	15
18	8	Sean Gelael	Campos Racing	21	+40.058	21
19	11	Gustav Malja	Rapax	21	+46.964	22
20	14	Philo Paz Armand	Trident	21	+1:30.028	20
21	2	Sergey Sirotkin	ART Grand Prix	21	+1:30.624	18
Ret	3	Norman Nato	Racing Engineering	19	Spun off	2
Fastest lap:   Luca Ghiotto (Trident) – 1:44.199 (on lap 3)
Source:

Standings after the round

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points   4 1   Oliver Rowland 79   4 2   Antonio Giovinazzi 78   5 3   Pierre Gasly 74   3 4   Raffaele Marciello 72   3 5   Mitch Evans 70

Teams' Championship standings Pos Team Points   2 1   Prema Racing 152   2   Racing Engineering 129   2 3   Russian Time 127   4   Campos Racing 94   1 5   ART Grand Prix 86

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

• 2016 British Grand Prix
• 2016 Silverstone GP3 Series round

References

1. "GP2 Series 2016 Results - Britain". GP2 Series. GP2 Motorsport Limited. from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
2. . GP2 Series. GP2 Motorsport Limited. 8 July 2016. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
3. . GP2 Series. GP2 Motorsport Limited. 8 July 2016. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
4. . GP2 Series. GP2 Motorsport Limited. 9 July 2016. Archived from the original on 10 July 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2016.

External links

• Official website of GP2 Series

Previous round: 2016 Red Bull Ring GP2 Series round	GP2 Series 2016 season	Next round: 2016 Hungaroring GP2 Series round
Previous round: 2015 Silverstone GP2 Series round	Silverstone GP2 round	Next round: 2017 Silverstone Formula 2 round