Red Bull junior driver Pierre Gasly scored his first race win for almost three years in Saturday’s GP2 Series feature race at Silverstone.
Gasly’s last win in any category came in September 2013 in a Formula Renault 2.0 race at Paul Ricard, leading to questions about his future on the Red Bull junior program.
Gasly started second at Silverstone on Saturday behind Racing Engineering’s Norman Nato, who held onto his lead with a rocket getaway.
However, an alternate strategy saw Gasly switch from option to prime tires early before whittling Nato’s lead down, meaning that once all of the long-runners had pitted, Gasly found himself in the lead of the race.
After throwing away victory on the last lap in Baku three weeks ago, Gasly ensured that there was no repeat at Silverstone as he eased through the final stages before crossing the line nine seconds clear of the pack.
Gasly’s elation was audible as he celebrated over his team radio, releasing all the pent-up frustration during his 1,015-day stint without a race win.
The result saw Gasly move into the lead of the GP2 drivers’ championship, pulling two points clear of Antonio Giovinazzi who finished the race second ahead of Oliver Rowland.
Mitch Evans finished the feature race in fourth place ahead of Luca Ghiotto, who battled his way up from 21st on the grid to cross the line fifth.
Nobuharu Matsushita returned from his ban in Austria to finish sixth ahead of Nato, while Jordan King secured reverse grid pole by ending the race P8. Raffaele Marciello and Artem Markelov rounded out the points in ninth and 10th respectively.