Reigning GP3 Series champion Alex Lynn took his maiden GP2 Series win at Barcelona, holding off championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne for the majority of the race.
The DAMS driver made a great start from fourth on the grid to slot in behind pole-sitter Norman Nato into turn 1.
With DRS working for the sprint race Lynn began to reign in the struggling Nato before making a move stick into turn 1 to take the lead.
With the move for the lead done Lynn set about creating a gap to Nato but the Frenchman was quickly pounced upon on the following lap by Vandoorne who also had a good start – moving up to fourth from eighth on the grid.
The battle for the lead between Lynn and Vandoorne was nip and tuck for the majority of the race, with the only serious attack from Vandoorne coming in the middle stint.
Lynn was able to fend off the Belgian off though and with Vandoorne’s tyres degrading lap by lap Lynn’s maiden victory was secured.
Lynn’s DAMS team-mate Pierre Gasly was able to fight back after a poor start to take his maiden GP2 podium. The Frenchman dropped down to fifth at the start but fought his way up to third with ease, coasting past Nato on lap nine.
Racing Engineering‘s Alexander Rossi followed Gasly in passing the struggling Nato. The Frenchman put up more of a fight against Rossi but he made his move stick on his second attempt on the inside of turn 4.
Russian Time‘s Artem Markelov and Campos Racing‘s Rio Haryanto also passed Nato and were locked in a close battle right until the end, with Markelov coming out on top in fifth.
Nato finished in seventh ahead of Arthur Pic who received a five-second penalty for missing his grid slot – which caused Nobuharu Matsushita to stall and start from the pit-lane.
The MP Motorsport of Daniel de Jong finished the race in ninth while Sergey Sirotkin held off Jordan King in a tight battle to round out the top ten.
Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello had been running third when an incident between Rene Binder and Andre Negrao brought out the first virtual safety car of the year.
Marciello was caught out on the virtual safety car restart – spinning up his rear tyres and going off the track, leaving the Italian down in 19th place.
Mitch Evans failed to make the start of the race after stopping out on track on his out lap, which led to the Pic’s confusion on the grid.
