Super Nova Racing - Alvaro Parente (Winner) Christian Bakkerud (DNF)

The eagerly awaited first race of the 2008 GP2 Championship took place this afternoon in the sunshine at Circuit de Catalunya, Spain.

Super Nova's Drivers Alvaro Parente and Christian Bakkerud were both in a determined mood to achieve a good result for the team during today's main race after qualifying yesterday afternoon.

Although Christian started 19th on the grid he had a very positive start and was in 11th position by the first lap with a good race ahead of him. Unfortunately, after a minor collision that signalled the return of his recurring back injury from last year he had to retire from the race 17 laps from the end. Sadly, he will not be taking part in tomorrow's sprint race.

Alvaro began the race in the envied second row position after a fantastic performance in yesterday's qualifying session. However, he quickly moved to pole after Maldonado got off to a poor start from the grid. With the championship win in his sights he had a superb race leading from start to finish and he took the chequered flag from the second place driver, Bruno Senna who was followed by Zuber in third. Alvaro is the first ever rookie to win a race and gets the ball rolling with a brilliant 10 points for pole position for Super Nova team. As the top eight finishers are reversed for Sunday's race, Alvaro will start 8th on the grid tomorrow.

The team finished the day on a real high and in an extremely positive mood for the race tomorrow and are hopeful for an equally good result as today.

Team Principle David Sears: "What a superb drive from Alvaro Parente. To be the first rookie to win his first race together with the fastest lap is something that not even Lewis Hamilton managed in his GP2 career. After Maldonado, the pole position starter, stalled on the grid, Alvaro made a great start, pitted under the safety car and retained the lead throughout the whole race under a lot of pressure from Bruno Senna. About 15 laps from the end, Alvaro Parente started to tire a little but kept a cool head and won his first GP2 race.

Christian Bakkerud actually managed to get to 11th from 19th on the grid over the first few laps and looked on good form from a point scoring position but unluckily for him, him recurring back problem from last year returned and he had to be stretchered out of the pit lane to the medical centre. At the moment we don't know if he will be fit enough to race tomorrow at 10:30am".

Alvaro Parente: "I feel great! Since yesterday, things have gone great and the team did such a fantastic job. Maldonado had a bad start and I had a lot of pressure from Bruno but I kept focussed and did it. I could see him in my mirrors but I pushed all race long. I was called in to the pits and they were very fast changing they tyres and I was back out again in pole. I am very pleased".

Christian Bakkerud: "It was a shame about the race seeing as I had had a good start and was at 11th after the 1st lap. Unfortunately I went to overtake 10th position and had a small collision that caused damage to the front wing and I had to pit. After that my back just wasn't right and tightened and tightened until it got so bad I could barely breathe and so because of that and the pain I had to pull in".

iSport Intl - Bruno Senna (2nd)

Bruno Senna finished second in the opening round of the GP2 Series at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona – and his race-long pursuit of winner Alvaro Parente (Super Nova) was one of the afternoon's highlights.

The race began in chaotic fashion. The original start had to be aborted, because a car stalled on the grid, but Senna got away brightly from on the grid and lay third as the field streamed through the first corner, where a multiple collision between several midfield runners caused the Safety Car to be deployed. Every driver made their mandatory tyre stop while the race was neutralised, and smart work by the iSport team put Bruno ahead of Andreas Zuber (Piquet Sports) when he rejoined the track. He spent the balance of the race putting Parente under extreme pressure, but the leader didn't make a mistake and Senna was forced to settle for a strong second place.

Bruno Senna: "I was pleased with the way things went today. The team did a fantastic job to get me ahead of Andreas during the tyre stop, and after that I just pushed as hard as I could. Alvaro drove a very strong race, though. He made no mistakes and deserved his victory. I tried absolutely everything I could to pass him – including different gears and different racing lines – but nothing worked. I think our car was potentially faster at certain points on the track, but overtaking here is always very difficult. The main thing is that we have had a strong, competitive weekend. This year's car is much more physically challenging to drive than the old one, but I feel fine and have come away with a healthy number of points. If the team continues to perform like this, I know victories will follow."

Racing Engineering - Giorgio Pantano (4th) Javier Villa (14th)

It was a good start for Racing Engineering in today's opening round of the 2008 GP2 Series with their new driver Giorgio Pantano taking an excellent fourth place less than four seconds behind the winner. For Javier Villa it was less successful although the young Spaniard drove hard to take a fighting 14th place.