Luca Filippi bounced back from a troubled qualifying session to finish fourth in the opening GP2 race at Magny-Cours, though it was an eventful outing that saw him collide with Super Nova team-mate Mike Conway en-route and lose out on a podium finish on the very last lap.

The Italian was left down in 16th place on the grid after his qualifying woes, but he fought his way up into contention during the race and only a late gearbox issue deprived him of third position – what would have been his third rostrum of the 2007 campaign.

“Obviously we had a difficult qualifying,” the Bahrain feature winner acknowledged. “I had a problem at the start and then got the yellow flag on the last lap, which was very bad because I had my best first and second sectors, so from 16th position it was difficult to score points!

“I didn't have such a good start, because (Adam) Carroll stalled in front of me, but my first and second corners were good, and also I was a bit lucky some of the drivers had problems by themselves so I was around tenth. I had a good pit-stop and got a few positions there too which put me sixth.

“At the re-start my balance was good, my set-up was working perfectly and I was able to overtake people. When I was with Mike I hit him a little, but I have spoken to him already and everything is fine; he said it was just a racing accident because I was there and wasn't able to move when he crossed the line.

“After that I caught (Pastor) Maldonado and overtook him. I was really quick and my rhythm was good – I was just one or two tenths slower than Giorgio (Pantano) who was quickest, so I was happy. Then with 14 laps to go I had missing gears for up-shifting and I thought 'what's happening?' The problem was getting worse and worse – on the straights I was making early shifts to drive around the problem, and also shifting down it was bouncing because the gearbox was very sharp. I wasn't able to have a very good car under braking and was always braking a little bit before, but when somebody is trying to overtake you have to try and brake late.

“Bruno (Senna) made a very good move; he was consistent and over the last laps I was losing a second per lap, so honestly it was almost impossible to keep him behind me – I tried, but congratulations to him and to Arden. Anyway it's good to have these kinds of races – fighting all the time, but correctly – and it was good we were able to finish the race and score points.”

The result helped consolidate Filippi's second position in the drivers' title chase, particularly with championship leader Timo Glock failing to score. What's more. fourth place leaves the 21-year-old GP2 sophomore on row three of the grid for Sunday's shorter sprint race, with a great opportunity to make amends for the lost podium in race one.

“I'm still second in the championship,” he confirmed, “and now the gap to Timo is smaller. Other drivers are coming back though – (Lucas) di Grassi has the same number of points as me, Bruno has just two less and Pantano who won the race is getting closer and closer.

“It's good to have a tight championship standing, for the show and for the fans watching GP2. I'm still there, I know our potential is very good and we showed that even starting from the back we can fight for the podium and get points.

“In GP2 races everything can happen, but for sure we will improve the set-up a little bit (for Sunday), and hopefully we will be a bit quicker than today and can try and pass the drivers in front. Here it is not really easy, because it's difficult to follow someone in the quick chicane, so I need to get a good start and then just fight and score good points.”