The German, who was expected to use the early part of the season to study how the series operates, showed that he is a fast learner, belying his relative lack of experience to take the top step of the podium ahead of Viso and teammate Nicolas Lapierre.
“A lot of quick drivers were in the back at the start, so I didn’t know what to expect,” the modest German noted after the race, “but by lap twenty I thought this might be okay.”
The start of the race saw two formation laps run and the race distance cut to 29 laps in order to allow every driver the same advantage of putting heat through their tyres.
After the formation laps however, a number of drivers overheated their cars and stalled under the strong Spanish sun, prompting another warm up lap and six holes on the grid. Ammermüller however showed that the distractions had no effect on him, as he powered by Viso and into the lead at the first corner.
Behind the pair, Nelson Piquet Jr had a great start, moving up from eighth on the grid to fourth position by turn two, while Lewis Hamilton repeated yesterday’s slow getaway, dropping from seventh to eleventh first time past the pits.
Further back and the grid was shaking itself out, with Timo Glock and Xandi Negrao coming together - the German muscled his way by at first only to be pushed off track two corners later for his troubles.
Alex Premat was in the wars once again, and his race was over on lap three as his car slowed and he limped back to the pits and retirement on lap three. His teammate, however, was onto the tail of Jose Maria Lopez, pushing hard for a way past on the tight Valencia circuit.
With Ammermüller pulling away, the battle for second position was fierce - Viso and Lapierre were at the start of a race-long fight, with the pair separated by not more than 0.8 seconds throughout.
Hamilton and Lopez were in the throws of a similar battle, one which was finally resolved in the Englishman’s favour on lap 17 when he feinted to the outside at turn two before moving inside his rival on the next turn, and was off to catch up to another fight up the road.
Adam Carroll was all over the back of Adrian Valles, but it was Hamilton who took advantage of the scrap by sliding past both drivers and into the points on lap 20. Carroll, clearly annoyed that his hard work rewarded another driver, redoubled his efforts to find a way past the local man. As he looked for a way past, the Ulsterman was caught out by an early braking Valles before launching over his rival and rolling a number of times, finally coming to rest in the gravel trap at turn three. As the marshalls rushed to his aid, Adam climbed serenely from his broken car, removed his helmet, waved and grinned widely as he acknowledged the applauding fans for their concern.
Adam's race was run, and so too was that of Adrian and Jose who were caught up in the collision.
Two laps later Clivio Piccione spun and stopped in the middle of the track, but fast thinking marshals allowed the race to continue with only a local yellow, and Ammermüller punched the air shortly after as he celebrated his first GP2 series victory.
Behind him Viso crossed the line with Lapierre right on his tail, with championship leader Piquet taking more points for fourth after a conservative race. Gimmi Bruni and Hamilton took the final points paying slots, while Andreas Zuber took fastest lap. His efforts will not be rewarded however. The top three fastest laps were all set by drivers who started from the pitlane after the first aborted start, and the Sporting Regulations say that a driver is only eligable for the fastest lap point if he starts the race from his allocated grid slot. As such, Nelson Piquet Jr, the fourth quickest driver on the track in the race, but the first in the list to have started on the grid, adds another point to his championship lead.
Pos, Driver, Team, Time- Ammermuller, Arden International, 38:44.066
- Viso iSport, International, + 9.756
- Lapierre, Arden International, + 10.213
- Piquet Jr., Piquet Sports, + 10.975
- Bruni, Trident Racing, + 16.537
- Hamilton, ART Grand Prix, + 18.510
- Negrao, Piquet Sports, + 32.746
- Glock, BCN Competicion, + 37.391
- Villa, Racing Engineering, + 44.084
- Fauzy, Super Nova International, + 55.125
- Gommendy, iSport International, + 60.402
- Yoshimoto, BCN Competicion, + 63.704
- Zuber, Trident Racing, + 66.274
- Perera, DAMS, + 69.772
- Pla, DPR, + 81.534
- Di Grassi, Durango, + 1 Lap (DNF)
NOT CLASSIFIED:
Driver, Team, Laps- Piccione, DPR, 24
- Valles, Campos Racing, 23
- Carroll, Racing Engineering, 22
- Lopez, Super Nova International, 22
- Monfardini, DAMS, 5
- Premat, ART Grand Prix, 3
- Filippi, FMS International, 0
- Porteiro, Campos Racing, 0
- Tahinci FMS, International, 0
- Hernandez, Durango, 0
Fastest lap: Zuber, 1:21.244 on lap 3
