Campos Racing's Rio Haryanto claimed his maiden GP2 victory on his 70th start in the category in the Bahrain sprint race.

The Indonesian lined up seventh on the reversed grid after finishing second in Saturday's feature race, making a good start to move up to third on the opening lap.

Haryanto then passed Mitch Evans for second on the approach to Turn 1 on lap four with the assistance of the new-for-2015 DRS.

He then reeled in Carlin driver Julian Leal, who had started on pole position, taking the lead at the end of the start/finish straight on lap eight.

Haryanto was able to extend his lead thereafter while a fierce battle raged behind him, taking care to manage his medium-compound Pirellis to win by three seconds.

Stoffel Vandoorne, who won the feature race, came through from eighth to finish second.

The Belgian took a cautious approach to the early stages of the race in traffic in order to preserve his tyres and drove intelligently to work his way up the order as others fell back.

Having moved past ART Grand Prix team-mate Nobuharu Matsushita to take second on lap 17 with the assistance of the DRS on the main straight, it initially seemed Vandoorne had the pace to reel in Haryanto.

But the Indonesian had managed his Pirellis to perfection and was able to stabilise the gap.

Nathanael Berthon, who started on the front row of the grid but made a poor start and was shuffled back to eighth on the first lap, drove a canny race to take third for the Lazarus team.

The Frenchman sat back but was able to make rapid progress in the closing stages as others struggled for grip on fading rubber, eventually passing Alexander Rossi on the start/finish straight for the final podium slot on the final lap.

With Rossi fourth, early-race leader Leal came back to take fifth, passing Matsushita on the final lap as the Japanese rookie struggled with his tyres.

Robert Visoiu claimed seventh place after running as high as second before he too dropped back while struggling for grip, prevailing in a battle with Andre Negrao for the final two points positions.

Jordan King finished ninth after a clash early in the race with Sergio Canamasas, with Arthur Pic, who started 21st after being eliminated from the feature race, coming through to 10th.

Evans, who was in the thick of the battle for the podium early on, finished 17th after suffering a puncture in a clash with Leal.

Sumber : http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/118594

Original Posted By blue_ferrari►




Indonesian breaks duck in Bahrain

Rio Haryanto claimed his long overdue maiden win with a mature drive in Bahrain, overtaking early in the race and then cruising off into the distance to win by 3 seconds from McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne and Nathanaël Berthon.

The win was set up at the start with an impressive getaway from seventh on the grid: poleman Julian Leal made a decent start while fellow front row starter Berthon stuttered, with Mitch Evans just failing to pass the Colombian into the first corner and Haryanto sweeping into P3 ahead of André Negrao, Robert Visoiu, Nobuharu Matsushita and Vandoorne.

Haryanto was soon on a charge, blasting around the outside of Evans at turn one on lap three while Vandoorne started to slice through the field as he chased a second podium for the weekend. Four laps later the Indonesian made short work of Leal as he blasted into the lead on the outside of turn one once again, and started building a gap over his pursuers.

Evans had a go at Leal the next time through but the pair came together, with the New Zealander having to limp back to the pits after picking up a puncture on Leal’s broken front wing endplate: the Colombian was unable to hold back his rivals and was concentrating on bringing home something for his efforts, with Vandoorne slicing through them all, with Alexander Rossi following in his slipstream.

As the laps rolled down tyre management was coming to the fore, but Haryanto used his experience to hold position: Vandoorne didn’t have enough to catch the Indonesian but his second podium secured his lead in the points, while a fast charging Berthon had bided his time and put his fresher rubber to good use by moving from P7 to P3 in the closing laps, stealing a podium from Rossi on the last lap. Leal did a good job to finish fifth after his struggles, ahead of Matsushita, Visoiu and Negrao.

Vandoorne leads the drivers’ championship after the first round ahead of Haryanto, 43 points to 33, with Rossi in third with 23 points ahead of Berthon on 16, Jordan King and Visoiu on 12, Leal on 10 and Evans on 8 points as the grid looks towards the next round of the championship in Barcelona.

http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2015/04_April/Haryanto-storms-to-first-victory-/

Original Posted By jeriz►

Losail - Satu-satunya pebalap Indonesia di balapan GP2, Rio Haryanto, tampil sangat gemilang pada Feature Race seri Bahrain. Start dari urutan ke-12, ia berhasil finis nomor dua.

Capaian ini menjadi awal yang sangat baik buat Rio dalam memulai musim 2015 bersama timnya, Campos Racing.

Berbeda dengan babak kualifikasi kemarin yang digelar malam hari, balapan di Sirkuit Internasional Bahrain digelar di bawah terik matahari. Balapan pembuka musim ini digelar Sabtu (18/4) dan berjarak tempuh 32 lap (173.184 km) dengan batas waktu lomba satu jam. Selain itu, Drag Reduction System yang membantu overtaking untuk pertama kalinya dapat digunakan dalam balapan ini.

Jalannya feature race berlangsung sangat ketat dan menegangkan. Selepas start, Rio yang memakai ban prime berhasil menjaga posisi di antara kerumunan para kompetitor menuju tikungan pertama. Lintasan yang lebar membuat perebutan posisi dapat terjadi hampir di setiap tikungan.

Sebuah insiden kecelakaan kemudian mengeliminasi Arthur Pic, Norman Nato, Raffaele Marciello, dan Pierre Gasly. Safety car terpaksa diturunkan ke lintasan dan menguntungkan para pembalap yang sudah memakai ban option. Mereka pun segera masuk pit untuk memasang ban prime.

Rio memilih bertahan lebih lama di lintasan dan membuntuti Stoffel Vandoorne di urutanpertama. Ketika safety car kembali ke pitlane, Rio sempat memberikan perlawanan terhadap Vandoorne menuju tikungan pertama. Selanjutnya, Rio membuntuti Vandoorne hingga giliran keduanya melaksanakan pit stop.

Rio sempat kehilangan beberapa posisi usai pit stop namun ia tetap memiliki determinasi yang kuat. Ban option yang dipasang sangat cocok dengan setelan mobil Rio. Putra pasangan Sinyo Haryanto dan Indah Pennywati tersebut lanjut menunjukkan kemampuan bertarung yang tangguh.

Rio tercatat berhasil menyalip juara GP3 Series 2012 Mitch Evans dan juara Formula 3 Inggris Jordan King. Tak cukup sampai di situ, Rio sukses menyalip Alexander Rossi diputaran terakhir untuk meraih posisi kedua.

Vandoorne akhirnya finis pertama sedangkan Rossi melengkapi posisi tiga teratas. Berkat kombinasi kematangan skill dan strategi yang brilian, Rio sukses memetik 18 poin berharga.

Rio sendiri menargetkan posisi lima klasemen akhir. Sprint race akan dilaksanakan Minggu (19/4) pukul 14.15 waktu setempat.

"Setelah melewati babak kualifikasi yang ketat, saya tetap optimistis menatap balapan pertama. Tingkat degradasi ban memang belum bisa diprediksi sepenuhnya dan saya memakai strategi berbeda dengan rekan setim saya Arthur Pic," ujar Rio seusai lomba, seperti tertuang dalam rilis tim manajemennya.

"Mayoritas peserta memasang memakai ban option di awal lomba sedangkan saya memilih ban prime. Akhirnya, pilihan tersebut berbuah podium. Sekali lagi, terima kasih atas semua dukungan yang terus mengalir dari Indonesia."

Selamat, Rio!

ember

semangat selamat rio