De Marco takes maiden win at Brno

The Italian, who started from pole position and spun out of the lead during F2's visit to the Czech Republic in 2009, took the lead from pole-sitter Dean Stoneman off the line and controlled the race from there.

De Marco opened a cushion of a couple of seconds over Stoneman, which the Briton was never able to break down.

"This is a really important win for me," de Marco said. "It's my first in F2 but also because it's here in Brno where last year I did a mistake when I was first."

Sergei Afanasiev and Benjamin Bailly were safe in third and fourth throughout, while Philipp Eng and Jolyon Palmer put on the race's only significant battle for fifth.

Eng had made a flying start and passed Bailly, but the Belgian took the place straight back at Turn 3 and forced Eng to defend from Palmer, who pressed him for most of the race.

Palmer made a move stick at Turn 3 on lap one, though he had to shut the door abruptly on Eng a couple of corners later.

Kelvin Snoeks, Will Bratt, Ricardo Teixeira and Benjamin Lariche completed the top 10, while Jack Clarke and Armaan Ebrahim were eliminated in a first corner tangle and Natalia Kowalska spun out later on.

Mihai Marinescu also had an eventful race, after he collected a cone during an off-track excursion while scrapping with Teixeira early on. He tumbled down the order with the cone lodged in his suspension, before pitting to have it removed and dropping to last.

Pos Driver                            Time/Gap
 1. Nicola de Marco                 36m20.232s
 2. Dean Stoneman                       +3.090
 3. Sergei Afanasiev                    +5.793
 4. Benjamin Bailly                     +7.955
 5. Jolyon Palmer                      +13.976
 6. Philipp Eng                        +18.225
 7. Kelvin Snoeks                      +22.877
 8. Will Bratt                         +23.437
 9. Ricardo Teixeira                   +27.931
10. Benjamin Lariche                   +28.668
11. Kazim Vasiliauskas                 +31.507
12. Tom Gladdis                        +35.125
13. Julian Theobald                    +51.216
14. Ivan Samarin                       +53.320
15. Plamen Kralev                    +1:08.359
16. Mihai Marinescu                  +1:25.435

Retirements

    Natalia Kowalska                   13 laps
    Armaan Ebrahim                      0 laps
    Jack Clarke                         0 laps


Fastest lap, de Marco 1m48.246s