Sebastian Buemi gets his first GP2 victory when Luca Filippi, who’d beaten him on the last lap, was excluded from the Asian series feature race in Indonesia.
Sebastien Buemi lost his first win on the last lap, but got it back from the scrutineers. (LAT photo)
Sebastian Buemi was handed his first GP2 victory after Luca Filippi was excluded from the Asian series feature race today after winning on the road. Filippi bested Buemi on the last lap, only to be stripped of the victory when he was found to have used tires allocated to his teammate, Hiroki Yoshimoto.
A safety car period on the second lap of the race caused all but seven cars to make an unscheduled pit stop. Filippi was one of the first cars to pit, while Yoshimoto stayed out, and somewhere in the confusion the team fitted the Japanese driver's tires to the wrong car.
QI-Meritus Mahara boss Peter Thompson explained what happened: “Hiroki was due for his stop after three laps, but the safety car came out as Luca was in the last corner. He called to say he was in the pit lane already and the mechanics didn't realize in time.
“We reported it to the clerk of the course immediately and we decided to finish the race. We're pretty devastated but we can't change what happened. We're a new team and these things happen, but we were pleased with our performance in general though.”
Filippi will also have to start tomorrow's sprint race from the back of the grid, as will ninth-place finisher Stephen Jelley, who was excluded from the classification for having had his car refueled on the grid prior to the start of the race.
