Bahrain 2007: DAMS break as Lapierre wins at last.

Nicolas Lapierre finally broke his victory duck in the GP2 Series, as he returned the DAMS team to the top step of the podium in race two of the weekend at Bahrain International.

Despite being beaten off the line by poleman Borja Garcia, the Frenchman made his move on lap one, getting it completed just before the first of two safety cars appeared to clear up a first turn incident, precipitated by the fast-starting Andreas Zuber. Keen to keep tabs on the leaders after his podium on Saturday, the UAE-domiciled Austrian tagged the rear of Lucas di Grassi's ART car, spinning the Brazilian and causing a melee that also accounted for rookies Christian Bakkerud, Bruno Senna and Adrian Zaugg, although the Arden duo continued, albeit with damage.

Pace reduced behind the safety car, Lapierre led Garcia - having pulled off a switchback move when the Spaniard ran wide early on the opening lap - with race one winner Luca Filippi in third, having taken advantage of the chaos at turn one. Andy Soucek had gained even more ground, up to fourth from twelfth, with Michael Ammermuller, Timo Glock, Zaugg and Karun Chandhok rounding out the top eight.

It took two laps to clear up the mess at turn one, but it wasn't long before the safety car was back out. Although Antonio Pizzonia managed to keep his damaged car out of the way after ramming the back of Giorgio Pantano while warming his tyres for the restart, Ho-Pin Tung had little option but to abandon his machine at the side of the road, having been nerfed into the barriers on the back straight just half a lap after the green light. Kazuki Nakajima appeared to blame for the shunt, which saw the Chinese debutant hit the barrier broadside, heavily damaging the left-hand side of the BCN car, fortunately without injury.

Another two laps were lost from the scheduled 23 while the red machine was removed, but Filippi wasted little time in making up ground on the restart. The Italian demoted Garcia to third at the opening corner of lap six, while Glock disposed of Soucek in similar fashion to mount his own assault on the lead, the German passing Garcia next time around to move into the top three.

Throughout the order, the race proved more akin to the GP2 of old after Saturday's somewhat more processional affair, with Giorgio Pantano contributing to the action with a double pass on Chandhok and Nakajima, as the Durango and DAMS drivers squabbled over ninth. The Italian then jumped the battle-scarred Zaugg for eighth and Soucek for seventh, completing his rise from 25th on the grid, but would go little further as his Campos car ran into transmission problems eight laps from the flag.

Zaugg's damage count was not helped by Chandhok, who snagged the battered Arden car at turn one on lap eight, the billowing sidepod eventually forcing the South African into the pits for repairs and ending hopes of a double points finish on debut. Chandhok spun in the incident, similarly ending his chances of a scoring appearance.

With ten laps down, Glock moved into second spot, showing Filippi what might have been possible on Saturday had it not been for suspension damage incurred in the first lap brush with Xandi Negrao. Once ahead of the Italian, however, the iSport driver found it hard to make ground on leader Lapierre, easing the Frenchman's path to the finish.

Without pit-stops to help shuffle the order, the field did its best to shake things up by any means possible, culminating in Pastor Maldonado taking Trident team-mate Kohei Hirate out of the action and Racing Engineering's Sergio Jiminez spinning himself into retirement.

Further up the field, Ammermuller - racing with a wrist injured in race one - ran wide on lap 15, allowing Mike Conway, up from 24th on the grid, to snatch fifth, but quickly latching onto the rear of the Super Nova car to join a three-way battle for fourth with Garcia, who did his best to encourage his pursuers by taking more tarmac than necessary on lap 17. When Conway took a look at passing the Spaniard, Ammermuller tried to capitalise, but the battle did little but to give the rapid Nakajima a chance to close in.

With the final point at stake, the Japanese driver then harried Ammermuller for sixth, eventually passing the ailing German on the final lap to make it two DAMS cars in the top six.

At the opposite end of the points, Lapierre continued untroubled by Glock, who he kept at a gap of 1.6secs for much of the race. Glock similarly had Filippi under control, ensuring that the top three ran unchanged to the flag.

"I still had a problem with my steering today, and I had to go offline and I picked up a 2cm cut in a rear tyre, but we made it to P2 with an exciting race and some good manoeuvres," Glock reported, "It's been a good start."

Filippi's third place left the delighted Italian with an early lead in the championship standings, with Glock, who also took the day's fastest lap, just two points.

"It was a great weekend, but I don't think anyone in the paddock expected this for me," the Super Nova pilot commented, "It was very important, because our pace was consistent with the first two in this race. I am very happy."

Lapierre's delight at finally taking top spot on the podium was obvious, the move to A1GP partner DAMS having paid off after two years at Arden. With the former F3000 champion having also discovered winning ways, the obvious question is whether the floodgates will now open for both.....

"It was a difficult race, but we stayed in the front and I'm really happy for the team," Lapierre concluded, "We had pretty good pace, and now we have to go ahead for the future, to do a good qualifying and win a Saturday race."