2016 Monaco Feature Race

The 2016 Monaco Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2016 Monte Carlo Race 1, was the third race of the 2016 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Circuit de Monaco on the 27 May 2017. The race, staged in support of the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix, would see Artem Markelov secure his maiden victory in GP2 despite starting from fifteenth on the grid.

It was Markelov's compatriot Sergey Sirotkin, however, who claimed pole position for the race, topping the times in Monaco's unique qualifying session. Indeed, Sirotkin's group proved to be slightly faster than the first group, with Norman Nato and the odd numbered cars starting from the right-hand side of the grid, and the even numbered drivers on the left.

However, a slow start from Sirotkin saw the Russian lose his best chance at victory around Monte Carlo evaporate before Sainte Devote, with Nato duly streaking into the lead. Indeed, only the confines of the short, narrow entry to the opening corner kept Sirotkin in second, with Jordan King crawling all over him.

Sirotkin recovered to attack Nato early on, although there were no real lunges made to take the lead. That left all of the attention on the fight for fourth, with Mitch Evans defending heavily from Oliver Rowland and Alex Lynn, while Pierre Gasly and Jimmy Eriksson clashed at Le Rascasse, causing a VSC.

Rowland aced the restart from the VSC to snatch fourth from Evans, while Sirotkin pushed Nato hard but in vain. Elsewhere Markelov was up into the top ten, soon to take eighth when he pressured Nicholas Latifi into hitting the wall, before Sirotkin's charge came to an end at La Piscine.

Another VSC was thrown to remove the Russian's ART from the circuit, before Nato and King resumed the race out front. Attention then focused on the pits with the first of those on supersofts making their stops on lap 28, with Nato losing a heap of time due to a sticking wheel.

Markelov duly inherited the lead, albeit having not made his switch from soft Pirelli tyres to supersofts. He would subsequently make his stop right at the end of a late VSC with four laps to go, and re-emerged just ahead of Nato who had been defending hard from Rowland.

With that the race was run, with Markelov keeping the Frenchman at arm's length to claim his maiden GP2 victory. Rowland would follow them through in third, his first podium finish, with Alex Lynn just behind in fourth.

Background
The FIA GP2 Series circus of 2016 reconvened in Monte-Carlo and the Circuit de Monaco for the second round of the season, again partnering Formula One. The circuit itself was unchanged, with no modifications made to the DRS zones, or indeed the entry list for the battle of Monte Carlo. Pirelli, meanwhile, brought the two softest tyre compounds available for GP2, the soft and supersoft tyres.

Into the Championship and Pierre Gasly was atop the pile after the opening round in Barcelona, six clear of Norman Nato in second despite failing to win either race. Alex Lynn was third after the opening pair of races, with Nicholas Latifi and Artem Markelov completing the early top five. Elsewhere, Oliver Rowland had moved up to ninth in the Spanish Sprint, while Nobuharu Matsushita had added his name to the board in the second race, meaning half the field had already scored.

In the Teams' Championship it was DAMS who led the way after the opening weekend, level on points with Racing Engineering courtesy of a second place. Prema Racing were next, ten behind, with Russian Time a close fourth. Carlin completed the top five as the final team in double digits, with MP Motorsport, Rapax and ART Grand Prix also on the board before the machinations in Monte Carlo.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * Positions highlighted in blue indicate a driver who qualified in Group B.
 * * Grid positions were based off the best times from each group, with the odd numbered cars on one side of the grid, and even numbered cars on the other before penalties were applied.
 * † Canamasas and Gasly were both made to start from the pitlane after failing to stop at the weighbridge.
 * ‡ Jeffri was made to start from the pitlane after failing to serve a three place grid penalty issued for impeding Markelov.

Grid

 * * Canamasas, Gasly and Jeffri were all forced to start from the pitlane.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Giovinazzi and Malja were both penalised five seconds for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
 * † Gasly set the fastest time of the race, but was ineligible to score points as he failed to finish in the top ten.

Milestones

 * Maiden victory for Artem Markelov in the GP2 Series.
 * Markelov also recorded his first fastest lap award.
 * Russian Time secured their tenth victory as an entrant in GP2.
 * Also the Russian squad's final GP2 victory before the series reformed as the FIA Formula Two Championship.
 * Oliver Rowland secured his maiden podium finish.
 * Marvin Kirchhöfer claimed his first points finish.

Standings
Artem Markelov moved to the top of the Championship after his maiden GP2 victory, two ahead of Norman Nato. Third after the third race would be Alex Lynn, while Pierre Gasly had tumbled to fourth after failing to score. At the back, meanwhile, Mitch Evans, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Sergey Sirotkin, Daniël de Jong and Arthur Pic had all added their names to the board.

Russian Time were leading the charge in the Teams' Championship with three races gone, moving four points clear of second placed Racing Engineering. DAMS were next, just ten off the lead, with Prema Racing in fourth having failed to register a point. MP Motorsport completed the top five, while Campos Racing were the latest team on the board in seventh.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.