Fabio Leimer and Racing Engineering win the Feature Race today in Bahrain

The weather at the Sakhir circuit was very hot for the start of the 32 lap Feature Race with an air temperature of 33° and a track temperature of 41°.

Following on from yesterday’s qualifying, Fabio Leimer was starting from pole position following his total dominance of both Friday sessions whilst Julián Leal was starting from 17th and looking to gain as many positions as possible.

Fabio Leimer

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

By lap 4 Fabio had slowly opened out a gap of 1.5 seconds over Coletti who was now coming under pressure from Bird. Fabio continued to increase his lead at the front of the field and by lap 6 the gap was 3.56seconds.

On lap 7 many of the cars began to pit for their mandatory stop with most drivers changing from the soft to the harder compound Pirelli although some had gambled on starting on the harder tyre.

On lap 10 both Fabio and Coletti made their pit stops and as the cars resumed the track they were now in 11th and 12th positions.

On lap 16 Fabio was lying 10th with the nine cars ahead of him yet to stop, the young Swiss was still being chased by Coletti who was 2.0 seconds behind in the Rapax car.

Fabio was now passing slower cars that had yet to pit and the gap to Coletti was fluctuating as both cars dealt with the traffic. As the cars ahead made their stops Fabio moved back into the lead on lap 21 and he was now 3.3 seconds ahead of Coletti.

With 10 laps remaining Fabio was leading by 2.7 seconds and over the next few laps Coletti began to close in on the Racing Engineering car but Fabio increased his pace to keep the gap at just under three seconds.

With six laps remaining, a slow lap from Coletti saw Fabio extend his lead to 3.9 seconds and, as the last few laps were completed, the young Swiss continued to increase his lead and, although he eased off over the last two laps, he took the chequered flag 1.9 seconds ahead of Coletti.

Julián made a slow start from 17th but he gained several places on the first lap to be 10th as the cars crossed the line and he was just 0.6 seconds behind Dillmann in 9th.

On lap 3 the young Columbian lost a place to Frijns but two laps later he re-passed the Hilmer Motorsport car. By lap 11 Julián was up to 3rd as many of the cars ahead pitted and this became 2nd as he passed Dillmann on lap 15.

Julián made his pitstop on lap 19 but sadly, as he accelerated away, the car stalled and he lost time as the Racing Engineering pit crew restarted the car. Sadly he resumed the track in 21st place and then to make things worse it was announced he would have to take a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

He took this on lap 22, resuming the track in 23rd place and although Julián was now running very quickly, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 24 with a time of 1m 43.889s, he was unable to gain more than a few places finishing the race in 19th.

Tomorrow’s Sprint Race will see Fabio start from 8th on the reversed grid and with a great chance of finishing on the podium again. Julián will have to start from near the back of the grid but the pace he showed today means that he will be trying hard for a points scoring finish.

Racing Engineering