2016 Hockenheimring Feature Race

The 2016 Hockenheimring Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2016 Hockenheim Race 1, was the thirteenth race of the 2016 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg, Germany on the 30 July 2016. The race, held in support of the 2016 German Grand Prix, would see Sergey Sirotkin secure a seemingly dominant victory, securing pole and fastest lap despite making an additional stop.

Indeed, Sirotkin proved to be unbeatable during qualifying, despite failing to set an outright fastest sector at all during his pole lap. Pierre Gasly had instead been the star of the session until the Russian's lap, only to make a minor mistake in the final sector on his best effort to let Sirotkin in, while Raffaele Marciello secured third.

Sirotkin aced the start on the soft Pirelli tyres, a getaway enhanced by the fact that Gasly almost limped out of his grid slot. Indeed, the pack would swarm around the medium shod Frenchman as he pulled towards the first corner, with Marciello, Norman Nato and Oliver Rowland all sprinting past unhindered.

Those three soon drafted back onto the back of Sirotkin, however, whose tyres were already beginning to fade after the third lap. Marciello duly charged past on the fourth lap, while Rowland abandoned his softs on lap six having dropped back to sixth.

Sirotkin, meanwhile, would stop on the following lap, entering the pits just as a VSC was thrown to recover Jordan King as the Brit had been tagged by Artem Markelov. As a result, Sirotkin rejoined in fourth ahead of Nato, although the Frenchman blasted past the Russian at the restart.

The race barely got going, however, before another VSC was required, this time to remove Daniël de Jong and Sean Gelael from the hairpin as they had collided. The race restarted with most of the rest of the soft starters sweeping in soon after, with race-leader Marciello rejoining well behind Sirotkin. Alex Lynn therefore inherited the lead, with Nato and Sirotkin fighting for second after mugging Nicholas Latifi.

There was to be another twist, however, for Sirotkin, having just seized the lead from Lynn on lap twenty-four, was told that his earlier stop did not count as it had been conducted during a VSC. With that, the Russian went charging off from his pursuers, in hopes of building a large enough gap to rejoin ahead.

Sirotkin duly stopped on lap 26, rejoining on a fresh set of soft tyres in hopes of charging through on fresh rubber. He duly stormed back up to second before a third VSC was thrown, before hunting down race leader Marciello in the closing stages to claim victory. The Italian was later mugged by compatriot Ghiotto on the penultimate tour and so had to finish third, while Gasly recovered to finish fourth, only to be retroactively disqualified due to an empty extinguisher.

Background
The GP2 Series, as well as its sister series' Formula One and GP3, returned to the Rhine valley in Baden-Württemberg, Germany for the seventh round of the 2016 campaign. Indeed, the historic Hockenheimring had been restored to the calendar as part of its contract with F1, updated with DRS zones for GP2 for the first time. In terms of the entry list there would be one change, with René Binder standing in for Sergio Canamasas at Carlin.

In terms of the Championship it was Pierre Gasly who had ended the previous weekend in Hungary with an eleven point advantage, largely due to the fact that teammate Antonio Giovinazzi had been unable to add to his tally in the Sprint. The Italian retained second, however, himself eleven ahead of compatriot Raffaele Marciello in third. Indeed Marciello was under more immediate pressure behind, with Oliver Rowland, Norman Nato and Jordan King all within five points of his 85 point haul.

In the Teams Championship it was GP2 virgins Prema Racing who led the charge after the halfway point, leaving Hungary with 203 points to their name. Racing Engineering were back as their nearest challengers, albeit some 42 points back, with Russian Time making way in third on 150. ART Grand Prix had made some valuable ground in fourth, now 24 behind the Russian effort, while Campos Racing had moved into the 100 club in fifth.

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

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * Giovinazzi was excluded from qualifying after running with an illegal undertray (bodywork).

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Gasly was disqualified for running with an empty fire extinguisher.

Milestones

 * Sergey Sirotkin secured his third and final victory in the GP2 Series.
 * It was also the Russian's second maximum score (pole, fastest lap and victory).
 * Sirotkin also finished on the podium for the tenth time.
 * ART Grand Prix claimed their 48th triumph in GP2.

Standings
Pierre Gasly retained the lead in the Championship despite failing to score, although he had been drawn in by the majority of the chasing pack. Indeed, race winner Sergey Sirotkin had earned the most from the opening race in Hockenheim, moving into second and six points behind the Frenchman. Antonio Giovinazzi and Raffaele Marciello were next, level on 100 points and a point off of Sirotkin, while Oliver Rowland remained in touching distance in fifth.

Prema Racing miraculously managed to hold their lead in the Teams' Championship after the first race, despite only grabbing a handful of points. Indeed, Russian Time had only succeeded in getting ahead of Racing Engineering to claim second rather than carve into the lead, with the gap between first and second locked at 52 points. ART Grand Prix were instead the biggest winners, moving right into contention for second with 159 points, two off of Racing Engineering and six behind Russian Time.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.