Nicolas Lapierre finally broke his victory duck in the GP2 Series, as he returned the DAMS team to the top step of the podium in race two of the weekend at Bahrain International.
Despite being beaten off the line by poleman Borja Garcia, the Frenchman made his move on lap one, getting it completed just before the first of two safety cars appeared to clear up a first turn incident, precipitated by the fast-starting Andreas Zuber. Keen to keep tabs on the leaders after his podium on Saturday, the UAE-domiciled Austrian tagged the rear of Lucas di Grassi's ART car, spinning the Brazilian and causing a melee that also accounted for rookies Christian Bakkerud, Bruno Senna and Adrian Zaugg, although the Arden duo continued, albeit with damage.
Pace reduced behind the safety car, Lapierre led Garcia - having pulled off a switchback move when the Spaniard ran wide early on the opening lap - with race one winner Luca Filippi in third, having taken advantage of the chaos at turn one. Andy Soucek had gained even more ground, up to fourth from twelfth, with Michael Ammermuller,
Timo Glock, Zaugg and Karun Chandhok rounding out the top eight.
It took two laps to clear up the mess at turn one, but it wasn't long before the safety car was back out. Although Antonio Pizzonia managed to keep his damaged car out of the way after ramming the back of Giorgio Pantano while warming his tyres for the restart, Ho-Pin Tung had little option but to abandon his machine at the side of the road, having been nerfed into the barriers on the back straight just half a lap after the green light.
Kazuki Nakajima appeared to blame for the shunt, which saw the Chinese debutant hit the barrier broadside, heavily damaging the left-hand side of the BCN car, fortunately without injury.
