The 2016 Silverstone GP2 Series round was a GP2 Series motor race held on 9 and 10 July 2016 at the Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom. It was the fifth round of the 2016 GP2 Series. The race weekend they supported the 2016 British Grand Prix.
| Round details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Round 5 of 11 rounds in the 2016 GP2 Series | |||
 Layout of the Silverstone Circuit | |||
| Location | Silverstone Circuit Silverstone, United Kingdom | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 5.891 km (3.660 mi) | ||
| Feature race | |||
| Date | 9 July 2016 | ||
| Laps | 29 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver |  Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | |
| Time | 1:38.216 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | |
| Second |  Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | |
| Third |  Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | |
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Mitch Evans | Campos Racing | |
| Time | 1:43.172 (on lap 24) | ||
| Sprint race | |||
| Date | 10 July 2016 | ||
| Laps | 21 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | |
| Second | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | |
| Third | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | |
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | |
| Time | 1:44.199 (on lap 3) | ||
Background
ART Grand Prix's Nobuharu Matsushita returned to the series after serving his one-round ban in Austria.
Report
Qualifying
In a somewhat controversial manner, Norman Nato achieved the fastest time of 1:38.216, thereby achieving his first pole position of the year. He was under investigation for setting his pole lap under red flag conditions. He was deemed by officials to set the lap time under green conditions and his pole time stood. Pierre Gasly achieved second place two-tenths behind Nato and Nicholas Latifi achieved a career-best of third.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Grid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1:38.216 | 1 | |
| 2 | 21 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 1:38.441 | 2 | |
| 3 | 6 |  Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1:38.797 | 3 | |
| 4 | 9 | Raffaele Marciello | Russian Time | 1:38.842 | 4 | |
| 5 | 2 |  Sergey Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 1:38.904 | PL 1 | |
| 6 | 20 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | 1:38.912 | 5 | |
| 7 | 7 | Mitch Evans | Campos Racing | 1:39.084 | 6 | |
| 8 | 4 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:39.123 | 7 | |
| 9 | 12 | Arthur Pic | Rapax | 1:39.160 | 8 | |
| 10 | 22 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 1:39.192 | 9 | |
| 11 | 10 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:39.370 | 10 | |
| 12 | 1 |  Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1:39.572 | 11 | |
| 13 | 19 |  Marvin Kirchhöfer | Carlin | 1:39.668 | 12 | |
| 14 | 18 |  Sergio Canamasas | Carlin | 1:39.749 | 16 2 | |
| 15 | 8 |  Sean Gelael | Campos Racing | 1:39.750 | 13 | |
| 16 | 11 |  Gustav Malja | Rapax | 1:39.798 | 14 | |
| 17 | 5 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:39.928 | 15 | |
| 18 | 23 |  Daniël de Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:40.459 | 17 | |
| 19 | 25 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 1:40.838 | 18 | |
| 20 | 24 |  Nabil Jeffri | Arden International | 1:41.160 | 19 | |
| 21 | 14 | Philo Paz Armand | Trident | 1:41.385 | 20 | |
| – | 15 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | no time | 21 | |
| Source:[1] | ||||||
- Notes
- 1.^ – Sirotkin was penalised after he failed to stop at the weighbridge and the car was not brought back before the mechanics worked on it, thereby violating the parc ferme ruling. He started from the pitlane.[2]
- 2.^ – Canamasas received a three-place grid penalty after having been deemed to demonstrate unsporting behaviour towards Oliver Rowland after the conclusion of practice.[3]
Feature Race
The preferred tire strategy for the feature race was often to start on the hard compound and then switch to soft later in the race. Prema Racing went against this using the opposite strategy to great effect, with Pierre Gasly taking his maiden GP2 win from teammate Antonio Giovinazzi. Oliver Rowland also went with this strategy, achieving third despite struggling for grip in the dying laps. This result elevates both Prema drivers to first and second in the standings, with Evans maintaining third.
Sprint Race
The sprint race saw another dominant performance from Jordan King who led from start to finish despite a late charge from Luca Ghiotto. The race was rather calm for the most part until three-laps from the end when the rain started to descend upon the circuit. As the circuit became more and more slippery, the drivers soon found themselves struggling for grip. Norman Nato spun off and several others left the circuit. Rowland passed Matsushita in the final laps to achieve another podium, the only driver to do so throughout the weekend.
Standings after the round
- Teams' Championship standings
| Pos | Team | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
 2 | 1 | Prema Racing | 152 |
 | 2 | Racing Engineering | 129 |
 2 | 3 | Russian Time | 127 |
| | 4 | Campos Racing | 94 |
| 1 | 5 | ART Grand Prix | 86 |
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.