Silverstone, Race 2: Haryanto flies to sprint victory

Rio Haryanto crushed the competition in this morning’s sprint race in Silverstone: leading from lights to flag the Indonesian was never troubled as he claimed his third victory of the season, ahead of Raffaele Marciello and Red Bull tester Pierre Gasly.

Haryanto got away well from pole when the lights went out, leaving a slow starting Nick Yelloly to deal with their pursuers. Marciello made an even better getaway to slot in front of the Briton, while Alex Lynn made a similarly sharp start but gave teammate Gasly just enough room on the outside of turn one, which he converted to the inside to run ahead out of turn two.

Yelloly was still shaking out his disappointment at dropping to P5 when Alexander Rossi mugged him at the Brooklands complex, but the American wasn’t done yet: lining up behind Lynn he jumped the Williams tester at the start of the second lap, although the stewards judged him to have had 4 wheels off the track and added 5 seconds to his overall time by way of a reprimand.

With Haryanto setting a string of fastest laps out front, all eyes were on the action behind: Yelloly was all over the back of Lynn and determined to make up for a poor start, pushing his countryman everywhere, while Sergey Sirotkin bided his time behind the pair, waiting to profit from any mistakes, and Oliver Rowland similarly pushed McLaren tester Stoffel Vandoorne for the final point on offer.

On lap 15 Yelloly thought he had it done before the final complex but couldn’t make it stick, giving Sirotkin a clean run inside and through, while two laps later Vandoorne’s tyres finally gave up, handing Rowland a line by. Yelloly doubled down and pushed the Russian hard, forcing himself into the inside line at Woodcote before repeating the trick on the last lap on Lynn.

At the flag an overjoyed Haryanto was 2 seconds to the good over Marciello, who crossed the line 3 seconds ahead of Gasly. The fight behind Rossi meant the American could hold onto a deserved 4th despite his time penalty, just ahead of locals Yelloly, Lynn and Rowland, who scalped yesterday’s winner Sirotkin on the last lap.

Vandoorne’s P9 today meant that the drivers’ championship fight has closed a little: the Belgian leads Rossi by 170 points to 105, ahead of Haryanto on 91, Sirotkin on 78 and Lynn on 56 points. ART Grand Prix also hold onto their lead in the teams’ title ahead of Racing Engineering, 199 points to 123, with Campos Racing on 112, DAMS on 98 and Rapax on 90 points ahead of the next round in the Series in Budapest.