Richie Stanaway and Status Grand Prix celebrated their maiden victories in the GP2 Series in Monaco after the New Zealander dominated proceedings in Saturday’s sprint race.
Starting from second place on the reverse grid, Stanaway made a clean start to pass Ferrari junior driver Raffaele Marciello into the first corner and take the lead of the race.
From there, he put in a controlled drive to go lights-to-flag and claim his first GP2 victory in just his sixth races in the series.
“It feels quite surreal to win here in Monaco today and of all the places to win your first GP2 race, this has to be the best,” Stanaway said. “GP2 is still so new to me and with this just being my third race weekend it really is a fantastic feeling.
“The tough thing is the mental concentration around here, you just need to stay focussed and get into a rhythm. The best way for me to do this was to keep pushing and it worked.”
The result also marked Status Grand Prix’s first victory in GP2 since taking over the old Caterham Racing operation for the 2015 season.
“It’s a fantastic feeling to be Monaco race-winners with Richie in our first year of GP2,” team principal Teddy Yip Jr said. “Richie has driven phenomenally all weekend, giving us a little scare on the final corner but he says he was just messing around – heart in mouth moment, so thanks for that Richie!”
Stanaway was followed home by Marciello and ex-Sauber reserve driver Sergey Sirotkin, who scored his first podium finish in GP2 on Sunday with third place.
American driver Alexander Rossi scored his worst result of the season to date, starting and finishing seventh, whilst championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne was resigned to a similar fate as he went from eighth on the grid to eighth at the checkered flag.
The GP2 Series resumes in support of the Austrian Grand Prix in one month’s time, and will be rejoined by GP3 for the weekend.
