The 2014 Bahrain GP2 Series round was a pair of motor races held on 5 and 6 April 2014 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain as part of the GP2 Series. It was the first round of the 2014 GP2 Series and was run in support of the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix. The first race, a 32-lap feature event, was won by ART Grand Prix driver Stoffel Vandoorne after starting from second position. Julián Leal finished second for the Carlin team and DAMS driver Jolyon Palmer took third. Palmer won the shorter 23-lap sprint race from Rapax's Simon Trummer in second and Leal third.

Palmer took pole position in the feature race by recording the fastest lap in qualifying, but wheelspin at the start dropped him behind Vandoorne. A lap three crash between Axcil Jefferies and Kimiya Sato saw the safety car deployed for the next three laps and Vandoorne kept the lead at the restart. He retained it until his pit stop on the ninth lap. Nathanaël Berthon took the lead for nine laps before Trummer took over the position until his lap 30 pit stop. Vandoorne regained the lead and maintained it to win the feature race. Felipe Nasr started from pole position in the sprint race but lost it to Trummer due to a slow start. Palmer passed Trummer for the lead on the second lap and held it to win.

Vandoorne's feature race victory was his first in the GP2 Series and on his maiden start and Palmer's sprint race win was the fourth of his career. The result put Palmer in the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 38 points, ten in front of second-placed Leal. Vandoorne was in third place, with Trummer fourth and Nasr fifth. DAMS became the leaders of the Teams' Championship by four points over Carlin. ART Grand Prix were a further seven points in third position, while Rapax and Racing Engineering were fourth and fifth, with ten rounds left in the season.

Background

The 2014 Bahrain GP2 Series round was the first of eleven scheduled events in 2014. It was held on 5 and 6 April 2014 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, and was run in support of the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought two types of tyre to the race: two dry compounds (yellow-banded soft "options" and orange-banded hard "primes"). There were a total of 13 teams of 26 participants each entered for both races and each driver piloted the Dallara GP2/11 car.

The final mass test session before the new season took place at the track over 19–21 March. On the first day, Daniel Abt (Hilmer Motorsport) set the fastest lap of the morning session with a time of 1:40.676 which saw the session twice disrupted when Takuya Izawa (ART Grand Prix) stopped on track and Simon Trummer (Rapax) abandoned his car after hitting the turn ten kerb. Alexander Rossi (Caterham Racing) set the quickest lap of the day in the afternoon session with a 1:40.604 lap. Rio Haryanto (Caterham Racing) recorded the fastest lap of the three days, a 1:39.129 in the second day's morning session, and Daniël de Jong (MP Motorsport) paced the afternoon session with a time of 1:40.508. In the third (and final) day, Jon Lancaster (MP Motorsport) was the fastest driver in the morning session with a lap of 1:39.693, and Abt was quickest in the afternoon session with a time of 1:41.061.

Practice and qualifying

One 45-minute practice session was held on Friday before the two races. In the practice session, held in windy conditions and on a dusty track, Russian Time's Mitch Evans was fastest with a time of 1:42.062, six-hundredths of a second faster than ART Grand Prix's Stoffel Vandoorne in second. Raffaele Marciello of Racing Engineering, Abt, Stéphane Richelmi for DAMS, Haryanto. André Negrão of Arden International, Jolyon Palmer in the second DAMS car, Trummer and Conor Daly's Lazarus vehicle completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. Julián Leal understeered off the track and into turn eleven; he spun two corners later. Facu Regalia slid under braking and drove onto the turn thirteen run-off area, while Rossi locked his tyres and ran wide at turn eleven. With two minutes remaining, de Jong stopped on a run-off area leaving the first turn and practice ended early because of the limited amount of time available.

Friday evening's qualifying session ran for 30-minutes. The drivers' fastest lap times determined the starting order for the first race. The pole position winner earned four points for the Drivers' and Teams' Championships. In contrast to previous years, qualifying was held at night, the first such occurrence in the GP2 Series. The track was less dusty than it had been in practice, and multiple drivers had pole position throughout the session. Palmer clinched his first pole position of the season and the second of his GP2 Series career with a time of 1:38.865. He flat spotted his first set of tyres and was aware the second set equipped would aid his challenge for pole position. Palmer was joined on the grid's front row by Vandoorne, who was temporarily investigated by the stewards for exceeding track limits at turn 13, but no action was taken. Abt took third having been unable to improve on his lap time. Richelmi improved towards the end of qualifying and was fourth. Haryanto took fifth ahead of sixth-placed Stefano Coletti. Early pace setter Evans fell to seventh as others went faster.

In the closing minutes, Carlin's Felipe Nasr was on a fast lap and closed up to Johnny Cecotto Jr.'s slow Trident car on the racing line through the fourth corner and appeared to execute a sudden manoeuvre resulting in Nasr gesticulating to Cecotto. The stewards deemed Nasr at fault and he incurred a three-grid penalty. Hence, Marciello, Arthur Pic for Campos Racing and Lancaster were ninth and tenth. Leal was the fastest driver not to have received a penalty who was unable to qualify in the top ten. He was followed by Cecotto and Negrão in 13th and 14th. Rossi could not replicate his earlier form and was 15th. Kimiya Sato of Campos Racing in 16th, was closely followed by René Binder of Arden International and Daly. Regalia was 19th, Lazarus' Nathanaël Berthon was 20th and Trummer took 21st. He was followed by de Jong who lost control under braking on cold tyres late in the session. Izaka was 23rd followed by Rapax's Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. Trident's Axcil Jefferies, 25th, lost control of his car's rear while others got their tyres to their optimum temperature early on. Artem Markelov (Russian Time) started from the back of the grid after a spin on cold tyres. This was caused by him running over the turn one kerb. Markelov stalled his car and the session was red flagged to allow the marshals to move his car off the racing line.

Qualifying classification Driver Team Time 1 7 Jolyon Palmer DAMS 1:38.865 1 2 10 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:38.895 +0.030 2 3 11 Daniel Abt Hilmer Motorsport 1:39.073 +0.208 3 4 8 Stéphane Richelmi DAMS 1:39.081 +0.216 4 5 18 Rio Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:39.228 +0.363 5 6 6 Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering 1:39.271 +0.406 6 7 1 Mitch Evans RT Russian Time 1:39.274 +0.409 7 8 3 Felipe Nasr Carlin 1:39.301 +0.436 11 9 5 Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering 1:39.449 +0.584 8 10 26 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:39.462 +0.597 9 11 21 Jon Lancaster MP Motorsport 1:39.507 +0.642 10 12 4 Julián Leal Carlin 1:39.588 +0.723 12 13 23 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Trident 1:39.615 +0.750 13 14 17 André Negrão Arden International 1:39.647 +0.782 14 15 19 Alexander Rossi EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:39.651 +0.786 15 16 27 Kimiya Sato Campos Racing 1:39.749 +0.884 16 17 16 René Binder Arden International 1:39.788 +0.923 17 18 25 Conor Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:39.848 +0.983 18 19 12 Facu Regalia Hilmer Motorsport 1:39.881 +1.016 19 20 24 Nathanaël Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:39.928 +1.063 20 21 15 Simon Trummer Rapax 1:40.059 +1.194 21 22 20 Daniël de Jong MP Motorsport 1:40.060 +1.195 22 23 9 Takuya Izawa ART Grand Prix 1:40.401 +1.536 23 24 14 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 1:40.408 +1.543 24 25 22 Axcil Jefferies Trident 1:40.619 +1.754 25 26 2 Artem Markelov RT Russian Time 1:41.172 +2.307 26 Source: Notes: — Felipe Nasr was given a three-place grid penalty for blocking Johnny Cecotto Jr. during qualifying.

Races The first race was held over or 60 minutes (which ever came first) and all drivers were required by regulations to make one pit stop. The first ten finishers scored points, with two given to the fastest lap holder. The grid for the second race was determined by the finishing order of the first but the first eight drivers were in reverse order of where they finished. It was run for or 45 minutes (which ever came first) and, in contrast to the first race, drivers were not required to make pit stops. The top eight finishers earned points towards their respective championships.

Feature race

The weather at the start of the first race on 5 April were dry and sunny with an air temperature of and a track temperature at . All of the leaders started on the soft compound tyres. Tyre degradation was predicted to be a major factor in the event, and Pirelli believed that the hard compound tyre would last an entire race without issue, although most of the lower starting drivers using this tyre were highly anticipated to create traffic problems. Trummer stalled as the formation lap began and was required to start from the pit lane. When the race commenced at 13:10 Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3), Palmer spun his wheels and Vandoorne overtook him to lead the field into the first corner. Richelmi and Coletti passed Palmer and Abt to move into second and third places. Regalia battled for position on the first lap but sustained a broken front suspension from an impact with Cecotto after exiting turn four which forced Regalia to retire from the race early. Palmer fell to sixth and battled Nasr for the position. Evans overtook Haryanto for fourth place at the first turn at the start of the second lap.

On the following lap, a large crash necessitated the deployment of the safety car. Jefferies defended his position from Sato on the straight linking turns three and four and Sato hit Jefferies's rear. Sato punted Jefferies into a collision with the wall at high speed. Jefferies's vehicle then slid across the tarmac at turn one and stopped in the gravel trap without collecting any other cars. Jefferies was unhurt. At the lap six restart, Vandoorne kept the lead but Richelmi, Coletti, Haryanto and Nasr elected to make pit stops for the mandatory change to the hard compound tyre. Evans and Palmer made their pit stops on the following lap, though Vandoorne committed himself to making track position pay off and extended his advantage to five seconds in front of Pic. Richelmi lost positions but his teammate Palmer moved back up the field and into third place. Nasr became disgruntled when Cecotto forced him to the side of the track battling for position. Vandoorne ceded first to Berthon at the end of lap nine when he made his pit stop and rejoined with a two-second advantage over Palmer.