Silverstone 2007: Carroll comes through in sprint.

Adam Carroll provided the perfect warm-up for the British Grand Prix crowd at Silverstone by winning the second GP2 Series event of the weekend from third on the grid.

The Briton took full advantage of a slow getaway from poleman Roldan Rodriguez but then had to pull off a ballsy move on the even faster starting Lucas di Grassi through the Becketts esses on lap one to assume the role of chief pursuer to early leader Pastor Maldonado.

With Rodriguez slotting into fourth, the top three had the opportunity to establish an early gap, while the likes of Kazuki Nakajima, Luca Filippi, Mike Conway and Andi Zuber found themselves bottled up behind the Minardi Piquet Sports car. Further back, championship leader Timo Glock was already on the move, the German determined to salvage something from 21st on the grid after his Saturday disappointment, and up to 18th by the end of lap one.

Maldonado's early gap - achieved while Carroll negotiated di Grassi - was quickly erased by the Briton, who was within a second after three laps and within half that two tours later. Once up behind the Trident car, however, Carroll found it difficult to make up the final gap and contented himself with keeping in touch with the leader as the race wore on.

The real action was further back in the pack, as Glock scythed his way through the midfield. Magny-Cours winner Giorgio Pantano provided little opposition as the German dived inside the Campos car for 14th on lap four, and the two Arden cars proved almost as easy as the points leader took 13th and twelfth with almost identical moves at Stowe on successive laps. As soon as the crowd had tuned into the where the passing was, however, the show was over, Glock's eagerness to pass Karun Chandhok at Bridge leaving him open to attack from Zaugg. When the South African missed his braking point, however, the iSport car was the nearest object and Glock spun into the gravel and out of the race.

With the points leader going empty-handed for a fourth successive race, those closest to him in the standings sensed another opportunity to close the gap, with di Grassi and Filippi, in particular, appearing to up their pace. When Rodriguez spun out of fourth, the group behind him was released, but it was Nakajima that made the most progress, quickly closing the gap to di Grassi, who did not appear to have the pace of those around him.

Everything changed just after half-distance, with Carroll finally getting the break he was looking for, and Nakajima muscling his way onto the podium. Maldonado ceded his early advantage after slowing in the middle of the Abbey chicane. The Venezuelan had hugged the inside at the second element, but was simply to slow out, allowing Carroll to run around his outside and into P1. Nakajima, meanwhile, simply blasted by di Grassi at Copse, setting his sights on the seemingly hobbled Maldonado, despite the Trident car still be a handful of seconds ahead.

Further back, Filippi's hopes of taking a decent haul of points to cut Glock's lead came under threat from Super Nova team-mate Conway, the pair jockeying for position for several laps before the Briton finally gained the place at Abbey. Unlike Carroll, however, the F3 graduate had been lining his team-mate up since Becketts, before finally out-foxing the Italian at the chicane on lap 18. Three laps later, Filippi caught a kerb exiting Copse and spun away any chance of points, yielding sixth to the patient Zuber as he recovered from the pit exit road.

Emphasising how much quicker than Maldonado he had been, Carroll quickly opened out a two-second lead over the Venezuelan, who now had Nakajima for company, allowing Carroll to ease his pace slightly with the flag in sight. Nakajima, meanwhile, had no intention of backing off and harassed his opponent throughout the final three laps. Glances at Stowe and Abbey looked promising but, ultimately failed to produce any gain in position, as Maldonado held on to second.

"It's unbelievable!" the winner admitted, "People get different emotions from winning, but it's just such a relief that I can still do it and, given the right team and the right opportunity, I know I can run as hard as any of them and race with the best. Hopefully, now we can be consistent and prove that we are as good as the guys who have won this championship and, hopefully, we'll get the shot at Formula One."

Maldonado was clearly relieved to have secured second, in the process doing something to lessen the belief that he is something of a Monaco specialist.

"It's my second podium, but I think we can fight for all the season," he insisted, "We need to work, we need to improve a little bit more and improve the car to be on the top in all the races, but we are working and its better to be on the top again."

Nakajima, meanwhile, was delighted to have taken two podium finishes for DAMS, which only had one car to run in the sprint race after Nicolas Lapierre's hefty accident on Saturday afternoon.

"It's a really, really good weekend - a great weekend," the Japanese driver admitted, "I think this is our potential. We had some sign from the beginning of the season, but we couldn't make it as a result. Now we could do that and I'm really happy."

di Grassi managed to resist Conway's advances for fourth, while Zuber rounded out the scorers as everyone homed in the luckless Glock.