A fast, well-timed pit stop jumped third-place runner Charles Pic up into the lead during the mandatory round of pit stops during the feature race of round 2 of the GP2 season at Barcelona.
Polesitter Giedo van der Garde had been running in the lead until then, but a slow stop for four tyres during which he nearly stalled the car meant that he came back out on track just behind his Barwa Addax team mate going into turn 1 when he came in for his own stop a lap later.
By contrast, title rivals iSport's Sam Bird and Dams' Romain Grosjean had quiet afternoons and came home in third and fourth respectively, but Grosjean was subsequently disqualified after his car failed post-race technical inspection which gives Bird the upper hand in the GP2 championship battle.
Many drivers struggled to improve their positions through 34 laps on the Barcelona track, although Fabio Leimer managed to charge from the back of the grid through to ninth position by the chequered flag.
There was an early safety car triggered by Luca Filippi spinning in the middle of the grid, and a later one for a collision between Esteban Gutierrez and Michael Herck when the Lotus ART driver was attempting to pass the Coloni. Gutierrez was given a ten-place grid penalty for tomorrow's sprint race after being judged to have caused an avoidable accident.
Grosjean will join Gutierrez at the back of the grid, while his exclusion from the results promotes Fabio Leimer into eighth place and hence into pole position on the reverse grid for Sunday's sprint race.
