Race 2: Karthikeyan goes back to victory

Narain Karthikeyan, driving for Super Nova International, went back to victory in Race 2 at Silverstone, as the 2013 Auto GP completed its 5th round of the season at the Northamptonshire venue. The Indian drove a masterful recovery race from the third row where he had started after yesterday's second place due to the reverse grid rule . The former F1 racer edged his team mate Vittorio Ghirelli: the Roman, part of the CSAI Young Driver Program, handed David Sears and his men a valuable 1-2 finish, enough for them to retain the lead in the teams' championship with 210 points. The final podium spot went to Kimiya Sato (Euronova Racing). The Japanese was able to make his way back to the top of the overall standings, although tied with Ibiza Racing Team's Sergio Campana. After winning Race 1, Campana was off to a tougher run today as he was stopped by a pit-stop issue. Rounding out the top-5 were Tamas Pal Kiss (Zele Racing) and Kevin Giovesi. The Ghinzani Motorsport runner had ended the day in the lead but was later penalized 25 seconds for not respecting the track limits in the opening stages of the race.

Dutchman Meindert van Buuren (MP Motorsport), who was also penalized after leading the pack in yesterday's Race 1, ended up in 6th place in front of fellow MP Motorsport man Daniel De Jong. A great run for the GP2 Series regular who drove an hard-charging race from the last row on the grid. Japanese Yoshitaka Kuroda, representing Euronova Racing, took 8th place after starting from the front row but losing positions in the very early stages together with Christian Klien. The Austrian did not warm his tires hard enough during the pace lap and his car struggled in putting the 550 horsepower of its Zytek engine to the ground when the lights went off. The top-10 was completed by Andrea Roda, who scored his second straight points finish for Virtuosi UK, in a rebound after his tough times at Silverstone.

Narain Karthikeyan:“I would have preferred to cross the finishing line in the lead, but considered that I risked to lose many valuable points yesterday for an issue during the formation lap, I'm quite satisfied with how the weekend went. I also took advantage from the problem happened to my rivals and I'm getting closing into the overall lead in points. The next round will be at the Nurburgring. It's a track that I know well and I want to get even more satisfactions there".

Vittorio Ghirelli:“My race has been a consistent one, I ended up in the same position I had at the start. Unfortunately, Klien, who was almost stopped, got into my way, and I had to lift the throttle in avoidance. In the end, we profited from a good race pace and strategy".

Kimiya Sato:“The overall balance of the weekend isn't negative. Today I fought back from last to third which hasn't been very easy, but I managed to make my way through traffic thanks to a good set-up. I'm coming out of this weekend still in the points lead although my advantage was wiped away. I'm ready to defend the lead again".