Premat sorry for Hamilton, happy with win.

Alex Premat has apologised to ART Grand Prix team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the contact that spun the Briton out of the lead of Saturday's feature race in Barcelona, but could not conceal the delight at having taken only his second GP2 Series win.

Despite having started from the front row, the Frenchman again found himself trailing his rookie team-mate in the closing stages but, this time, unlike at the Nurburgring a week ago, he had the faster car. Closing in relentlessly over the final few laps, Premat got to within a second of the Briton, but appeared unable to get quite near enough for a pass as the aerodynamic effect of the cars, combined with the circuit layout, made it difficult to make up the last few yards.

However, with just a matter of corners to go, Premat finally got the run he was looking for, diving to the inside of Hamilton on a tight left-hander. Although the Briton attempted to give him room, Premat's car made contact, spinning the leader around.

"The last lap was really good because, for five laps, I was getting very close to Lewis," he said later, "At that corner, I was braking a little late I think, and maybe, when I pushed hard on the brake, I also pushed on the throttle and slid a little bit and I touched him. I'm sorry for Lewis because he had a good race, but I think I was much faster at the end. I am very happy with this result."

Hamilton appeared unconcerned by the incident, celebrating with his team-mate on the podium and making light of the contact during the post-race press conference.

"It's racing," he shrugged, "He is my team-mate, and it's only fair that I give him a bit of room, otherwise we would have crashed anyway. As he said, he tried to accelerate as quick as possible and tyres were quite slippery at that time. He said that he made a mistake."

Premat went on to confirm that there were no team orders at ART, with both drivers able to race each other for victory, just as they had in Germany a week earlier.

"I think we are more [likely to be] racing at ART, because ART are very strong," he explained, "With Nelsinho for example, he is really better than Negrao, so it is really hard for Nelsinho and Negrao to crash. But Lewis and me are very similar in driving, so there is more risk of this. We had the same thing with Nico Rosberg last year."

The victory, however, went a long way to making up for a poor start to the year for the Frenchman, who edged closer to the battle for the championship currently being fought out by Hamilton and Nelson Piquet Jr.

"I think I have been strong since the beginning of this event, and it's really good," Premat said, "in practice, I was faster; in qualifying, I was faster, although, like Nelsinho and Lewis, I had some troubles with traffic.

"For sure, since the beginning of the season, I have had some problems in Valencia, Imola and the Nurburgring, but I think it's finished and now I need to move back to Lewis and Nelsinho in the championship, to win a lot of races and, maybe, to win the championship."