Evans scores first GP2 victory

Mitch Evans scored his first career GP2 victory at Silverstone in Saturday's feature race, winning for the Russian Time team.

Kiwi Evans, who is Mark Webber's protege, undercut long-time leader Jolyon Palmer of DAMS during the mandatory pitstop cycle. They had dueled early in the race too, with Evans getting ahead of Palmer on the opening lap, only for the Briton to repass him on lap four.

Palmer and Evans traded fastest laps throughout, and Evans was 1.3sec behind when Palmer pitted on lap 19. A massive push from Evans before he pitted on the following lap meant he rejoined ahead, but he had to hold off Palmer with some stern defensive driving on cold tires.

Palmer lunged him around the outside of both Brooklands and Luffield, but he ran out of track at the latter and went wide over the artifical turf. Evans went on to win by 4.9sec, and admitted: "We've been waiting too long for this, it feels nice!"

ART's Stoffel Vandoorne was a distant third, inheriting the final podium position after early leader Raffaele Marciello (Racing Engineering) retired with a technical failure at half-distance and Carlin's Felipe Nasr suffered a slow pit stop.

A thrilling battle for fourth was taken by Julian Leal, who battled back from an abysmal start to pass Stefano Coletti around the outside of Stowe on the final lap. They touched there and again at Club, but Leal held on to the position.

Nasr finished in their wheeltracks in sixth, and is now 45 points behind Palmer.