Jolyon Palmer stormed to his maiden GP2 victory in the sprint race around the streets of Monte Carlo.
British driver wins sprint race in Monaco
Jolyon Palmer stormed to his maiden GP2 victory in the sprint race around the streets of Monte Carlo.
Starting from third on the grid, the British driver made a fantastic start and powered past Stephane Richelmi and James Calado, who started on the front row to lead into Ste Devote.
As Palmer dived up the inside into turn one, Calado ran into the back of Richelmi putting the Monegasque driver out of the race and damaging the Englishman's front wing.
The safety car was called for when feature race winner Johnny Cecotto spun at Casino Square and tagged Davide Valsecchi sparking chaos on track, as Felipe Nasr rode over the top of Victor Guerin causing a number of other cars to come together.
By the time the cars came back across the line, the field was ten cars lighter.
The race was got back underway on lap four, and Palmer bolted at the front, opening up a gap that would prove untouchable.
Behind Calado was clearly struggling with damage to his car, and was holding up the field behind when he was called into the pits to change his wing.
That released Chilton who tried to hunt down Palmer, but the iSport International driver was always in control and held onto take victory.
"I got an awesome start to jump into the lead, and after the safety car I was able to build a good lead," said Palmer.
"Then I just managed the gap to Max Chilton without taking any risks. I have to say a big thank you to iSport for all their hard work after an unlucky start to the season.
"Hopefully now we can carry this momentum through to the next rounds at Valencia and be fighting at the front again."
A delighted Chilton added: "That was an amazing race today. I was pretty lucky to avoid the accidents on the first lap, but I made a good start and was ahead of most of the chaos I think.
"I was held up behind Calado for a long time which was frustrating, as I could see all the carbon fibre flying off his car. Once he'd pitted I was able to push hard and the car felt fantastic.
"I was able to make up ten seconds on Palmer but unfortunately there wasn't enough time left to do anything more than that. Second is still a fantastic result though and to get it at Monaco makes it even more special."
Van der Garde had another strong race to take his second podium of the weekend, and his fourth consecutive top three finish, while Marcus Ericsson rounded out a great weekend for his iSport team by claiming fourth place.
Rodolfo Gonzalez held on against race long pressure from Luiz Razia for fifth, with the Brazilian claiming the fastest lap on his last trip round in sixth, while Nathanael Berthon and Esteban Gutierrez closed out the final points positions.
Valsecchi maintains his championship lead on 141, but Luiz Razia has closed the gap as he moved onto 110. Van der Garde moves up to third on 85 points ahead of Chilton on 79, Calado on 75, and Gutierrez on 60 points.
