2016 Spa Sprint Race

The 2016 Spa Race 2, otherwise known as the 2016 Spa Sprint Race, was the sixteenth race of the 2016 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on the 28 August 2016. Antonio Giovinazzi would win the race, held in support of the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, having made an excellent start.

Gustav Malja would start the race from pole, and duly got away well enough to hold the lead into La Source. That left Luca Ghiotto to be jumped by Giovinazzi into the hairpin, with the Prema scything inside the Trident before blasting away after Malja.

Giovinazzi's teammate Pierre Gasly, meanwhile, would have an action packed start to the race, beginning with a collision with Oliver Rowland, resulting in some damage to his front wing. He then blasted past the Brit later in the lap, before taking Alex Lynn towards the end of the opening tour.

Out front, meanwhile, Giovinazzi plotted his bid to claim the lead, and duly charged past Malja for the lead on lap seven on the run down the Kemmel Straight. The Italian duly pulled away to establish an unassailable lead, while Malja himself was safely ahead of third placed Ghiotto.

With the top three already sorted out attention focused on Gasly, who found himself tucked in right behind the two Russian Times of Raffaele Marciello and Artem Markelov. Markelov was his first victim, with the Russian also losing out as the Frenchman barged past, before Marciello fell to his charge on the final lap.

Giovinazzi, meanwhile, was left to cruise home to claim a third victory of the season, also collecting fastest lap as he did so. Malja and Ghiotto completed the podium as expected, while Gasly's late charge left him fourth ahead of Marciello as Markelov crashed out on the final lap.

Background
There were no changes made to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps overnight after the Feature, meaning the GP2 Series required no further practice. Likewise, there was no late change to the results of the Feature, meaning that Gustav Malja would start from pole as expected.

In terms of the Championship, victory in the Feature had put Pierre Gasly back at the head of the table, with the Frenchman moving 23 points clear of second placed Sergey Sirotkin. The Russian himself had just kept ahead of Raffaele Marciello and Antonio Giovinazzi, who ended the opening day in Spa two and three behind the Russian respectively. Oliver Rowland, meanwhile, completed the top five, becoming the latest man to break the 100 point barrier.

In the Teams' Championship the opening battle of Spa had resulted in a victory for Prema Racing, who moved 59 points clear at the top of the table. Russian Time had barely managed to keep pace in second, with themselves and Racing Engineering both moving past ART Grand Prix after their poor start to the weekend. DAMS were next, the latest squad to move into triple figures for the season, while Arden International remained buried at the foot of the table.

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

Grid
The grid for the second race of the weekend at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was determined from the results of the Feature Race, with the positions of the top eight reversed as per-FIA GP2 Series rules:

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Lynn, King, de Jong, Jeffri, Pic and Eriksson were all awarded ten second time penalties for using DRS illegally.
 * † Sirotkin was handed two ten second time penalties for using DRS illegally.
 * ‡ Markelov was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

 * Antonio Giovinazzi secured his third victory in the GP2 Series.
 * It was also the Italian's fifth podium finish.
 * Prema Racing claimed their sixth GP2 triumph.
 * Maiden podium finish for Gustav Malja.

Standings
Pierre Gasly continued to lead the Championship after the second Spa race, although teammate Antonio Giovinazzi had cut the gap back down to seventeen points. Indeed, the Italian ace had moved up to second from fourth after his third victory of the season, trading places with Sergey Sirotkin. Raffaele Marciello had retained third, with all four still in realistic contention for the title.

In the Teams' Championship it was Prema Racing who once again emerged triumphant, extending their lead to 78 points. Indeed, such was the Italian team's advantage that they could afford to miss an entire weekend and still retain the lead, with a maximum of 78 point available over a weekend. Russian Time remained their closest challengers ahead of Racing Engineering, with ART Grand Prix also in position to attack for second.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.