The first race of the GP2 season got off to a slightly chaotic start as three cars stalled on the dummy grid and another three failed to get going at the start, forcing another formation lap and a restart.
When the race finally got going Timo Glock scorched forward from seventh on the grid to pass team mate Andreas Zuber on the outside. He then dived up the inside of Alexandre Negrao at the second corner and cheekily bumped the Brazilian aside.
Luca Filippi converted pole position into the lead and, apart from Christian Bakkerud running a very long first stint, was never headed.
A drawn out battle for the lower points places kept the crowd entertained. Lucas di Grassi took a couple of attempts to pass Adrian Zaugg, but eventually succeeded on lap 18.
Zaugg kept Nicolas Lapierre bottled up for lap after lap, the two making contact at turn one on lap 24, but Zaugg staying ahead.
But Filippi just eased away from Glock by eight seconds to win with Zuber third. Bruno Senna drove a calm race to fourth and the highest placed rookie.
Kazuki Nakajima set the fastest lap shortly before clouting Michael Ammermuller as he un-lapped himself from the ART driver.