The 2015 Monaco GP2 Series round was a pair of motor races held on 22 and 23 May 2015 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco as part of the GP2 Series. It was the third round of the 2015 GP2 season and was run in support of the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix. The first race, a 40-lap feature event, was won by ART Grand Prix driver Stoffel Vandoorne who started from fourth position. Alexander Rossi finished second for Racing Engineering, and MP Motorsport driver Sergio Canamasas came in third. Status Grand Prix driver Richie Stanaway won the second event, a 30-lap sprint race, ahead of Trident's Raffaele Marciello and Sergey Sirotkin of the Rapax team.

Rossi, who started from pole position, was overtaken by Maricello at the start of the first lap. He had a small lead which was reduced because he was using super soft tyres which had higher degradation levels, allowing Rossi and Vandoorne to draw closer. Rossi gained the lead after Maricello made a pit stop for new tyres. Vandoorne became the new leader after passing Rossi when both drivers made pit stops, and maintained it to win the event. In the second race, Marciello began from pole position but lost the lead to Stanaway as a result of a slow start. The race was processional with few overtakes as Stanaway led the rest of the race to win.

Vandoorne's feature race victory was the seventh of his GP2 Series career and the third in a row in 2015. Stanaway's sprint race win was his and Status Grand Prix's first. The results of the round increased Vandoorne's lead in the Drivers' Championship to 44 points over Rossi who moved from third to second. Rio Haryanto fell to third, with Mitch Evans and Alex Lynn fourth and fifth. ART Grand Prix extended their lead over Racing Engineering in the Teams' Championship to 37 points ahead. Third-placed Campos Racing moved further ahead of DAMS, with eight rounds left in the season.

Background

The 2015 Monaco GP2 Series round was the third of eleven scheduled events in 2015. It was held on 22 and 23 May 2015 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco and supported the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the red-banded supersoft and the yellow-banded soft compound dry tyres along with one wet-weather compound to Monaco. The drag reduction system (DRS) had one activation zone for the race: on the main straight linking the final and first turns. A total of 13 teams of 2 participants each for a total of 26 competitors were entered for both races and every driver piloted the Dallara GP2/11 car.

Before the race, ART Grand Prix driver Stoffel Vandoorne led the Drivers' Championship with 86 points, 37 ahead of Rio Haryanto, who in turn, was a further three in front of Alexander Rossi in third. Mitch Evans was fourth on 28 points, and Alex Lynn was three points behind him in fifth place. ART Grand Prix led the Teams' Championship with 93 points; Racing Engineering in second were six points ahead of Campos Racing in third. DAMS were in fourth on 41 points, and Russian Time were fifth on 34 points.

Practice and qualifying

One 45-minute practice session was held on Thursday before the two races. The session was held on a dry race track upon having dried up from earlier rain. Arthur Pic of Campos Racing lapped fastest with a time of 1:20.556, ahead of Rossi, Pierre Gasly, Vandoorne, Sergio Canamasas (MP Motorsport), Raffaele Marciello (Trident), Richie Stanaway (Status Grand Prix), André Negrão (Arden International), Haryanto and Norman Nato. Evans caused a brief early red flag period when he stopped his car atop a hill entering Massenet corner, and was unable to set a timed lap. Canamasas went onto the Sainte Dévote run-off area, and Marco Sørensen (Carlin) locked his tyres, causing him hit the barrier at Rascasse corner, and reversed out of the turn. Daniël de Jong stopped his car at the Novelle chicane because of a car mechanical failure.

Friday afternoon's qualifying session ran for 30-minutes. Qualifying was divided into two groups of thirteen cars, with odd numbered vehicles in Group A and even numbered cars in Group B. The drivers' fastest lap times determined the starting order for the first race. The driver who won the pole position was awarded four points that went towards the Drivers' and Teams' Championships. Light rain fell as the session started and some drivers elected to equip the super soft tyres to their cars while other competitors chose to utilise wet-weather compounds. Rossi clinched the second pole position of his GP2 Series career with a time of 1:37.019. The achievement ended Vandoorne's run of consecutive pole positions which started at the 2014 Spa-Francorchamps round. He was joined on the grid's front row by Marciello who had the pole until the latter's lap. Marciello pushed hard and narrowly avoided a loss of car control at Massenet's barriers. Pic qualified third and Vandoorne fourth. Rapax's Sergey Sirotkin improved his lap time late on to start from fifth place. He shared the third row with Julián Leal of Carlin who was ahead of Hilmer Motorsport's Nick Yelloly and Jordan King of Racing Engineering. Canamasas and de Jong were ninth and tenth; de Jong slid into the Mirabeau barrier in the closing minutes of qualifying.

Nobuharu Matsushita was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten. Gasly in 12th went deep into Sainte Dévote but did not damage his car. Artem Markelov followed in 13th, ahead of Stanaway whose front wing was damaged in a collision with the Mirabeau barrier, requiring him to enter the pit lane for a replacement nose cone. Negrão placed 15th, with Zoël Amberg in 16th who aquaplaned off the circuit because of an oversteer and struck the exit Tabac corner barrier, removing his right-rear wheel. The two were followed by Lynn and Evans; the latter overshot the entry of Sainte Dévote but avoided damaging his vehicle. Sørensen's car briefly launched airborne after mounting the kerbs through the swimming pool complex and qualified in 19th position. René Binder and Johnny Cecotto Jr. started 20th and 21st; Cecotto went onto Mirabeau's run-off area but avoided damaging his car. Nathanaël Berthon qualified 22nd and Haryanto incurred a three-place starting penalty for being unable to slow sufficiently during a yellow flag period in the track's second sector and started from 23rd. Nato, Marlon Stöckinger and Robert Vișoiu were the final qualifiers.

Qualifying classification Group A +Final Group A qualifying classification Driver Team Time 1 11 Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:40.357 2 2 5 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:41.124 4 3 3 Julián Leal Carlin 1:41.655 6 4 7 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:41.895 8 5 17 Daniël de Jong MP Motorsport 1:42.150 10 6 1 Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:42.248 12 7 23 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1:42.425 14 8 27 Zoël Amberg Team Lazarus 1:42.539 16 9 9 Mitch Evans Russian Time 1:42.804 18 10 15 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:42.913 20 11 25 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Hilmer Motorsport 1:43.386 22 12 21 Norman Nato Arden International 1:44.286 24 13 19 Robert Vișoiu Rapax 1:44.475 26 Source:

Group B +Final Group B qualifying classification Driver Team Time 1 8 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:37.019 1 2 14 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:37.617 3 3 18 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:38.391 5 4 24 Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1:38.618 7 5 16 Sergio Canamasas MP Motorsport 1:38.691 9 6 6 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:39.020 11 7 10 Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:39.073 13 8 20 André Negrão Arden International 1:39.142 15 9 2 Alex Lynn DAMS 1:39.186 17 10 4 Marco Sørensen Carlin 1:39.532 19 11 12 René Binder Trident 1:39.539 21 12 26 Nathanaël Berthon Team Lazarus 1:40.101 23 13 22 Marlon Stöckinger Status Grand Prix 1:41.503 25 Source:

Races The first race was held over or 60 minutes (which ever came first) and the regulations required drivers 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 with the first eight drivers 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 race was sunny and warm with an air temperature of and a track temperature of . The race started at 11:10 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) on 22 May. Matsushita stalled his car on his starting position because of losing oil pressure, and five other drivers stalled soon after, prompting marshals to push them away from the grid. A further delay was caused during the wait for the stalled cars when confusion arose over who started where, and it was later decided to perform another formation lap, shortening the race by one lap. Gasly was deemed to have jumped the start and was required to begin from the pit lane. When the race started 20 minutes later after one extra lap was removed from the race distance, Maricello on the super soft compound tyres made a brisk getaway to move ahead of Rossi around the outside for the lead into Sainte Dévote corner. Further down the field, Amberg damaged his front wing and made a pit stop for repairs at the end of the first lap. Pic maintained third position from Vandoorne, while Stanaway moved from 14th to tenth, while King made up three positions over the same distance. Maricello held a 2.1 second lead over Rossi by the end of lap one because he had the super soft tyres equipped on his car. The first four drivers pulled away from the rest of the field.

Maricello's super soft tyres began to degrade quickly, allowing Rossi and Vandoorne to draw closer over the next two laps. Rossi caught Maricello by the start of the sixth lap but the latter remained on the circuit. King, who was delayed by a long queue of vehicles behind him, was the first driver to make a scheduled pit stop on the same lap and rejoined the track in clear air. On lap eight, Matsushita collided heavily with de Jong at the Novelle chicane, causing him to retire and was later penalised with a three-place grid penalty for the sprint race after the stewards judged him to have missed the corner's braking point. De Jong was able to continue. Marciello made his pit stop for new tyres on the next lap, allowing Rossi and Vandoorne to move into first and second and both drivers built an advantage over the rest of the field. Maricello rejoined in 11th, behind Pic, who made his pit stop one lap later. Sørensen was placed into the Casino Hairpin barriers at the apex of the corner by Nato on lap ten, ending his race. Nato incurred a ten-second time penalty, but the safety car was not deployed. Markelov retired from the race in the pit lane with damage to his car after running off the circuit, and drove over a kerb at the exit to the left-hand Louis Chiron corner, launching him airborne into a trackside barrier.