Alvaro Parente led from start to finish on his GP2 Series debut to claim victory in the opening round of the 'summer' championship at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.
The Portuguese driver made the most of a front row grid slot and a mistake from polesitter Pastor Maldonado, who all but stalled at the second start, to seize the initiative into turn one, and was only threatened thereafter by an early safety car period and the constant - if not close - attention of second placed Bruno Senna.
Having had to complete a second formation lap after Milos Pavlovic stalled his BCN entry mid-grid at the first time of asking, Maldonado lurched away and then had his engine die at the second attempt, allowing Parente an unchallenged run to turn one. Behind the Super Nova driver, Maldonado's Piquet Sports team-mate Andreas Zuber came close to collecting the pole car, but still managed to fend Senna off and claim second.
Karun Chandhok made a good getaway to slot in behind the Brazilian, with Adrian Valles, Giorgio Pantano, Vitaly Petrov and the rest all managing to get through the first corner unscathed. The same could not be said for the end of the lap, however, where Luca Filippi's poor run of luck continued following his move from Meritus to ART, the Italian being lifted into a spin at the chicane by Mike Conway.
Another collision as the field filed raced into turn one then interrupted the early flow, as Christian Bakkerud thought he saw a gap to the inside of Ben Hanley, only to collect the Campos car and spin both around. Behind them, Conway's team-mate, Ho-Pin Tung collected Roldan Rodriguez, with the Trident machine being stranded in the gravel and joining its sister in needing the attention of the cranes before racing could resume.
![Alvaro Parente - Super Nova Racing [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/432060.jpg)
