DAMS - Jerome d'Ambrosio (3rd) Kamui Kobayashi (8th)

Today, DAMS raced in the first event of the 2009 GP2 Series Championship on the Catalonian circuit and kicked off its season with a rostrum finish. Starting from sixth on the grid Jerome d'Ambrosio made a blinding getaway in the Long Race, and was up into third after only a few hundred metres. The Belgian drove a perfect, consistent race controlling the gap to the fourth-placed car. A good pit stop enabled him to hold onto his position, and he finished his first GP2 Series race of the season on the rostrum.

Kamui Kobayashi pushed right from the start and was rewarded by the point for eighth place. His was the fight back of the day, as he started from twenty-second spot on the grid! The Japanese driver changed tyres very early on, which he then nursed to saw the chequered flag in the best conditions. Tomorrow, he will start the short race from pole!

Eric Boullier: "Given our positions at the start, today's result is an excellent one. Bravo to our two drivers who showed that they've got the skills to fight at the front for the rest of the season. Congratulations too to the team for its efficient strategy and good pit stops. Today's race gives our motivation a huge boost in view of those to come. Given Kamui's position on the grid, we can look forward to a victory, and another rostrum finish for Jerome. Those will be our aims tomorrow."

Jerome d'Ambrosio: "When the lights went out I got a hell of a fright as the car just in front of me was very slow getting away. I managed to avoid it, and in the confusion that followed I was able to move up to third very quickly. The car was well balanced; I felt very much at ease and I was able to keep up the pace right to the flag. Today's result is a reward for all the effort I've made over these past few months - and I'm not going to leave it at that!"

Kamui Kobayashi: "I really didn't think I'd score points in normal conditions but we did it! It was difficult to keep the car on the track towards the end as my tyres were shot, but our gamble paid off. I'm starting from pole tomorrow and I'll be gunning for victory. Finally, what started out as a bit of a nightmarish weekend has turned in our favour."

iSport International - Giedo van der Garde (7th) Diego Nunes (11th)

As is tradition for the first race of the season it was an action packed feature race at the Circuit de Catalunya this afternoon.

Rookie iSport driver Giedo van der Garde scored points in his first race after benefitting from the misfortune of his teammate Diego Nunes. Both Nunes and van der Garde had good starts with the later up to P11 from starting P18 by the first lap. With many held up for most of the race by the struggling Lucas Di Grassi a big accident between Alvaro Parente and Di Grassi unfortunately caught out an innocent Nunes damaging the front wing, barge board and steering of his iSport GP2 car. In the ensuing chaos the other iSport car of rookie Giedo van der Garde had better luck as he picked his way through into a fantastic P7 and a front row start in tomorrow's sprint race.

Giedo van der Garde: "We did a great race. I had a really good speed and the race a we had a really great start. Of course we were a little bit lucky in the end but that's racing and we finished 7th so from 18th to 7th is great. Tomorrow I'm on the front row and we hope to make a great race and we can finish somewhere on the podium and I'm very pleased about the weekend".

Diego Nunes: "I did a quite good start and after that I got stuck behind Di Grassi and had a good fight with him. In the middle of this fight I lost two positions and my race started to go worse after that. I also lost one position in the pit stop to Mortara. After that was not too bad, I was still in the top eight then Parente had a crash with Di Grassi just in front of me and I couldn't miss them. I tried to avoid the accident but I couldn't and I lost my front wing and my steering wheel wasn't straight and I just tried to finish the race. Now tomorrow I have to work to be in the points".

Durango - Nelson Panciatici (12th) Davide Valsecchi (DNF)

Barcelona race 1 with a double meaning for Durango. Davide Valsecchi immediately lost a lap because he stalled at the start and then, while he was twentythird he was forced to retirement. Back to the pit Davide showed to be more sorry that angry, willing to receive and to give consolation from and to the team at the same time. If we know him well this could mean a race 2 driven with pride tomorrow morning.

Nelson Panciatici, on the contrary, did very well his debut race finishing twelfth. The young French, who drove a compliment deserving race demonstrating a very good speed and a full control of the situation, said: "Considering that for me this was the debut I believe I did a good job. In term of competitiveness and difficult drive GP2 stands without any doubt at the maximum level, so I am happy to have demonstrated that I deserve it".

DPR - Michael Herck (13th) Giacomo Ricci (DNF)

DPR recorded one finish and one non-finish in the 2009 GP2 series today. Michael Herck completed the distance in his first GP2 event at Barcelona, finishing in 13th place. Team mate Giacomo Ricci was a first lap retirement following an incident at the start. The Formula One supporting GP2 Series began its 2009 season at Circuit Catalunya, Barcelona with the first of twenty races. Herck and Ricci, racing with DPR this season have both prepared with a winter of GP2 Asia. Herck also ran in the two pre-season tests earlier this year.