# 2016 Silverstone GP2 Series round

The 2016 Silverstone GP2 Series round was a GP2 Series motor race held on 9 and 10 July 2016 at the Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom. It was the fifth round of the 2016 GP2 Series. The race weekend they supported the 2016 British Grand Prix.

## Background

ART Grand Prix's Nobuharu Matsushita returned to the series after serving his one-round ban in Austria.

## Report
### Qualifying

In a somewhat controversial manner, Norman Nato achieved the fastest time of 1:38.216, thereby achieving his first pole position of the year. He was under investigation for setting his pole lap under red flag conditions. He was deemed by officials to set the lap time under green conditions and his pole time stood. Pierre Gasly achieved second place two-tenths behind Nato and Nicholas Latifi achieved a career-best of third.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Grid |
| 1 | 3 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1:38.216 | 1 |
| 2 | 21 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 1:38.441 | 2 |
| 3 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1:38.797 | 3 |
| 4 | 9 | Raffaele Marciello | Russian Time | 1:38.842 | 4 |
| 5 | 2 | Sergey Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 1:38.904 | PL |
| 6 | 20 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | 1:38.912 | 5 |
| 7 | 7 | Mitch Evans | Campos Racing | 1:39.084 | 6 |
| 8 | 4 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:39.123 | 7 |
| 9 | 12 | Arthur Pic | Rapax | 1:39.160 | 8 |
| 10 | 22 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 1:39.192 | 9 |
| 11 | 10 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:39.370 | 10 |
| 12 | 1 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1:39.572 | 11 |
| 13 | 19 | Marvin Kirchhöfer | Carlin | 1:39.668 | 12 |
| 14 | 18 | Sergio Canamasas | Carlin | 1:39.749 | 16 |
| 15 | 8 | Sean Gelael | Campos Racing | 1:39.750 | 13 |
| 16 | 11 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 1:39.798 | 14 |
| 17 | 5 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:39.928 | 15 |
| 18 | 23 | Daniël de Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:40.459 | 17 |
| 19 | 25 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 1:40.838 | 18 |
| 20 | 24 | Nabil Jeffri | Arden International | 1:41.160 | 19 |
| 21 | 14 | Philo Paz Armand | Trident | 1:41.385 | 20 |
| – | 15 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | no time | 21 |
| Source: ||||||

#### Notes

    1.^ – Sirotkin was penalised after he failed to stop at the weighbridge and the car was not brought back before the mechanics worked on it, thereby violating the parc ferme ruling. He started from the pitlane.
    2.^ – Canamasas received a three-place grid penalty after having been deemed to demonstrate unsporting behaviour towards Oliver Rowland after the conclusion of practice.

### Feature Race

The preferred tire strategy for the feature race was often to start on the hard compound and then switch to soft later in the race. Prema Racing went against this using the opposite strategy to great effect, with Pierre Gasly taking his maiden GP2 win from teammate Antonio Giovinazzi. Oliver Rowland also went with this strategy, achieving third despite struggling for grip in the dying laps. This result elevates both Prema drivers to first and second in the standings, with Evans maintaining third.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 21 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 29 | 51:39.383 | 2 | 25 |
| 2 | 20 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | 29 | +9.422 | 5 | 18 |
| 3 | 22 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 29 | +16.090 | 9 | 15 |
| 4 | 7 | Mitch Evans | Campos Racing | 29 | +21.667 | 6 | 12 (2) |
| 5 | 15 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | 29 | +24.591 | 21 | 10 |
| 6 | 1 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 29 | +25.165 | 11 | 8 |
| 7 | 3 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 29 | +25.474 | 1 | 6 (4) |
| 8 | 4 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 29 | +25.651 | 7 | 4 |
| 9 | 9 | Raffaele Marciello | Russian Time | 29 | +31.757 | 4 | 2 |
| 10 | 10 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 29 | +33.115 | 10 | 1 |
| 11 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 29 | +34.220 | 3 | |
| 12 | 19 | Marvin Kirchhöfer | Carlin | 29 | +34.409 | 12 | |
| 13 | 18 | Sergio Canamasas | Carlin | 29 | +37.898 | 16 | |
| 14 | 12 | Arthur Pic | Rapax | 29 | +42.610 | 8 | |
| 15 | 25 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 29 | +55.205 | 18 | |
| 16 | 5 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 29 | +56.604 | 15 | |
| 17 | 24 | Nabil Jeffri | Arden International | 29 | +57.490 | 13 | |
| 18 | 2 | Sergey Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 29 | +1:02.096 | PL | |
| 19 | 23 | Daniël de Jong | MP Motorsport | 29 | +1:23.661 | 17 | |
| 20 | 14 | Philo Paz Armand | Trident | 29 | +1:39.764 | 20 | |
| 21 | 8 | Sean Gelael | Campos Racing | 28 | +1 Lap | 13 | |
| 22 | 11 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 28 | +1 Lap | 14 | |
| Fastest lap: Mitch Evans (Campos Racing) – 1:43.172 (on lap 24) ||||||||
| Source: ||||||||

#### Notes

    1.^ – Rowland was given a five-second time penalty for excessive over-use of track limits.

### Sprint Race

The sprint race saw another dominant performance from Jordan King who led from start to finish despite a late charge from Luca Ghiotto. The race was rather calm for the most part until three-laps from the end when the rain started to descend upon the circuit. As the circuit became more and more slippery, the drivers soon found themselves struggling for grip. Norman Nato spun off and several others left the circuit. Rowland passed Matsushita in the final laps to achieve another podium, the only driver to do so throughout the weekend.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 4 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 21 | 37:35.325 | 1 | 15 |
| 2 | 15 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | 21 | +0.580 | 4 | 12 (2) |
| 3 | 22 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 21 | +11.664 | 6 | 10 |
| 4 | 20 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | 21 | +11.786 | 7 | 8 |
| 5 | 1 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 21 | +17.518 | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 9 | Raffaele Marciello | Russian Time | 21 | +20.467 | 9 | 4 |
| 7 | 21 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 21 | +23.126 | 8 | 2 |
| 8 | 19 | Marvin Kirchhöfer | Carlin | 21 | +25.873 | 12 | 1 |
| 9 | 18 | Sergio Canamasas | Carlin | 21 | +26.721 | 13 | |
| 10 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 21 | +27.370 | 11 | |
| 11 | 12 | Arthur Pic | Rapax | 21 | +28.061 | 14 | |
| 12 | 10 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 21 | +28.632 | 10 | |
| 13 | 7 | Mitch Evans | Campos Racing | 21 | +28.844 | 5 | |
| 14 | 5 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 21 | +29.598 | 16 | |
| 15 | 24 | Nabil Jeffri | Arden International | 21 | +31.284 | 17 | |
| 16 | 23 | Daniël de Jong | MP Motorsport | 21 | +32.249 | 19 | |
| 17 | 25 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 21 | +35.412 | 15 | |
| 18 | 8 | Sean Gelael | Campos Racing | 21 | +40.058 | 21 | |
| 19 | 11 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 21 | +46.964 | 22 | |
| 20 | 14 | Philo Paz Armand | Trident | 21 | +1:30.028 | 20 | |
| 21 | 2 | Sergey Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 21 | +1:30.624 | 18 | |
| Ret | 3 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 19 | Spun off | 2 | |
| Fastest lap: Luca Ghiotto (Trident) – 1:44.199 (on lap 3) ||||||||
| Source: ||||||||

## Standings after the round

| | Pos | Driver | Points |
| 4 | 1 | Oliver Rowland | 79 |
| 4 | 2 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 78 |
| 5 | 3 | Pierre Gasly | 74 |
| 3 | 4 | Raffaele Marciello | 72 |
| 3 | 5 | Mitch Evans | 70 |
| | Pos | Team | Points |
| 2 | 1 | Prema Racing | 152 |
| | 2 | Racing Engineering | 129 |
| 2 | 3 | Russian Time | 127 |
| | 4 | Campos Racing | 94 |
| 1 | 5 | ART Grand Prix | 86 |
* Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.