page_title: 2013 Sepang GP2 Series round
section_title: Sprint race
hierarchical_section_title: 2013 Sepang GP2 Series round / Report / Races / Sprint race
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Stefano Coletti
context_page_description: The 2013 Sepang GP2 Series round was a pair of motor races held on 23 and 24 March 2013 at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malaysia as part of the one-make single seater GP2 Series. It was the first round of the 2013 GP2 Series and was run in support of the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix. The first event, a 30-lap feature race, was won by Racing Engineering driver Fabio Leimer from a fourth position start. James Calado finished second for ART Grand Prix and Rapax's Stefano Coletti took third. Coletti won the 22-lap sprint race held the following day. Carlin's Felipe Nasr placed second and Mitch Evans of Arden International was third.
  Coletti won the first pole position of his career in the GP2 Series by posing the fastest lap in qualifying and he held the advantage until he made a pit stop for the hard compound tyres at the end of lap six after being put under pressure by Leimer. Coletti retook the lead after all drivers made their pit stops but he lost the position to Leimer on lap 25 because of tyre degradation.
context_section_description: The second race began in cloudy weather at 12:15 local time on 24 March. Ma was ruled unfit to compete after the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile medical doctor diagnosed him with gastroenteritis which led to extreme dehydration. At the start of the formation lap, Palmer stalled his car and was required to start from the pit lane. As a result, Nasr used the vacant spot left by his teammate Palmer to pass the slow-starting Bird and Leal on the inside line going into the first turn. However it was the sixth-placed Coletti who took the lead away from Richelmi because he made a strong getaway and steered onto the outside to pass him leaving the second corner. Going into the braking zone for turn four, Calado got caught out by Leimer and mistimed an pass on him and hit the right-rear corner of his car. The impact dislodged Calado's front wing, which folded under his car. This rendered Calado unable to steer and had limited braking capabilities since he could not control his vehicle which launched over the grass on the inside of the circuit. He ploughed into Leal and Bird at high speed and all three drivers instantly retired in the turn four gravel trap.
  Richelmi was overtaken by Nasr at turn one at the start of the second lap and made it stick at the turn two switchback. The top three of Coletti, Nasr and Richelmi pulled out a one-second advantage over Evans in fourth place with Cecotto in fifth and sixth-placed Leimer who continued to circulate the track despite his incident with Calado on the first lap. From then on Coletti opened his lead over Nasr to two and a half seconds after setting a series of fastest laps. However, he put himself a risk of putting his tyres under excess stress and creating an identical situation of him losing the chance of victory to a driver who better conserved his tyres. With the lead now stabilised, attention focused on Palmer further down the order as he moved his way through the field and got to 14th midway through the race while Ericsson gained two places to be in 16th. On lap 16, Richelmi out-braked himself and ran deep onto the run-off area at the turn 15 hairpin. Evans had conserved his tyres in the laps beforehand and overtook Richelmi for third. He then repelled a counter-attack from Richelmi into the first corner. On lap 17, Leimer found the damage to his car from the first lap incident with Calado caused too much rear tyre wear and a sudden loss of grip put him into the turn eleven gravel trap and out of the top ten.
  Tyre degradation became a factor in the final laps as Nasr lowered Coletti's lead to 1.2 seconds and later to six-tenths of a second by the start of the final lap. It was not enough for Nasr to get close enough to challenge Coletti who managed the gap and his tyres to clinch the third victory of his career in the GP2 Series. Nasr finished eight-tenths of a second adrift in second and Evans became the youngest driver to claim a podium in the GP2 Series in third. Off the podium, Richelmi finished fourth and Cecotto benefited from the first lap crash to take fifth. Cecotto was ahead of Trummer and Daly who were separated by just four-tenths of a second in sixth and seventh. Binder finished sixth-tenths of a second in front of Palmer to claim the final points-scoring position of eighth. The final classified finishers were Giovesi, Dillmann, Leimer, Ericsson, de Jong, Canamasas, Abt, Quaife-Hobbs, Haryanto, Varhaug, Rosenzweig, Berthon and Ceccon. After the race, the stewards imposed a ten-place grid penalty on Calado for the next feature race of the season in Bahrain.
caption: Stefano Coletti (pictured in 2015) led every lap of the sprint race to claim his third victory in the GP2 Series.
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