Leal claims first Auto GP win in Spain

The Trident driver converted pole into a comfortable lead with a good start. He built up an advantage of around a second over Edoardo Piscopo which he held until DAMS brought its man in for his mandatory tyre change.

Leal pitted a lap later, and just held on to his position. The pair ran side-by-side through the first complex of corners, but Leal held firm. Piscopo tried repeatedly to engineer a way under the leader, but could never get quite close enough and the Colombian duly scored his and his team's maiden series win.

As well as attempting to wrest control of the lead, Piscopo also had to defend hard from team-mate Romain Grosjean. The ex-Renault Formula 1 racer made a strong start, and was up to fifth when DAMS opted to pit him as soon as the window opened. The tactic worked. Lapping almost a second quicker than the leaders on fresh Michelins he gained two places, but fell about two seconds short of grabbing the lead.

Duncan Tappy made it a DAMS 2-3-4, while Jan Charouz brought his Renault F1-liveried Charouz-Gravity car home fifth. Team-mate Alexander Sims finished eighth on the road, but was hit with a 25-second penalty for passing under the safety car, which was brought out due to yet another Gravity driver, Adrien Tambay, spinning.

Results - Iaconelli excluded and Charouz penalised

Pos  Driver            Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Julian Leal       Trident          36m59.514s
 2.  Edoardo Piscopo   DAMS               + 0.390s
 3.  Romain Grosjean   DAMS               + 1.237s
 4.  Duncan Tappy      DAMS               + 2.387s
 5.  Jonny Reid        Super Nova         + 9.695s
 6.  Giacomo Ricci     RP                + 10.521s
 7.  Luca Filippi      Super Nova        + 11.023s
 8.  Natacha Gachnang  Charouz-Gravity   + 22.603s
 9.  Jan Charouz       Charouz-Gravity   + 28.133s
10.  Stefano Bizzarri  RP                + 34.314s
11.  Alexander Sims    Charouz-Gravity   + 48.898s
12.  Fabio Onidi       Lazarus            + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Adrien Tambay     Charouz-Gravity  13 laps
     Carlos Iaconelli  Durango          Excluded