GP2: Giovinazzi storms from back of grid to win

Antonio Giovinazzi came from the back of the grid for a home GP2 win at Monza, helped by a confused safety car period.

Giovinazzi denied Raffaele Marciello a long-awaited second victory with a final-lap pass, while frustrated long-time leader Pierre Gasly had to settle for fourth behind Gustav Malja.

Championship leader Gasly had looked set for a comfortable win having established a three-second lead after resisting early attacks from Artem Markelov and Arthur Pic.

Markelov clipped Gasly as he locked up into the first chicane after the start, and forced Pic off the road in the process.

Pic rejoined from the escape road alongside Gasly and then launched multiple bids to take first place in the opening laps before getting embroiled in an extremely fraught fight with Markelov instead.

Then after the pit stops Pic ended up tussling with Sergio Canamasas in a battle that ended with the Spaniard being launched into a roll on the exit of the Lesmos as he turned in from the outside with Pic sideways over the inside curb.

While Canamasas was unhurt, the safety car the crash prompted changed the face of the race.

Those who had started on medium tires had yet to pit, led by Nobuharu Matsushita, Malja and Giovinazzi, who had lost his front row start to a tire pressure infringement on Friday.

ART brought Matsushita in instantly, but the other three were handed a huge advantage as the safety car erroneously picked up Gasly as the race leader.

Marciello, Malja and Giovinazzi were then able to get around and make their pit stops while the pack that should have returned to the front was held back at safety car pace, rejoining in front and on soft tires for the final eight-lap sprint.

Giovinazzi attacked in the closing moments, pulling off DRS passes on Malja and then Marciello to move from third to first in the final two laps and seal an unlikely win.

Gasly was left in fourth ahead of Norman Nato, Luca Ghiotto, Jordan King and Mitch Evans.

Markelov lost ground going off the road battling with Pic and ended up 10th behind Oliver Rowland.

Alex Lynn was forced to start from the pit lane at the last moment and ended up 12th, with Sergey Sirotkin sliding down the order through the race to end up 15th.

Originally on Autosport.com