Ernesto Viso has taken his second GP2 win of the season in a tight but uneventful race two in Barcelona, holding on to beat Nelson Piquet Jr, Alex Premat and Lewis Hamilton to the chequered flag.
Viso was never headed in a race which was unusually devoid of overtaking on the technical circuit, with the teams showing what happens when they all have extensive set up data on a track that the drivers know very well.
At the start polesitter Viso was quickly away as the lights went out, with fellow front row starter Xandi Negrao stalling and being swamped by the oncoming field. Piquet had a lightening start to move up from fifth to second, with the ART pair following the Brazilian through the grid by running outside Michael Ammermüller at turn one.
Ferdinando Monfardini was very slow off the line, dropping from third to seventh, while Tristan Gommendy had a safe start to hold on as best he could ahead of Giorgio Pantano, who pushed up three places to sixth.
At the front Viso was pushing hard to establish a lead over Piquet, with the pair trading fastest laps ahead of ART drivers Premat and Hamilton, as the order all along the field was shaking itself out.
Part of that process was Clivio Piccione and Franck Perera taking each other out on lap two, while Jose Maria Lopez was into the pits with yet another problem.
With the drivers at the front establishing their positions for the race the action was happening further back, with Timo Glock holding on grimly for eleventh ahead of Andreas Zuber, Nicolas Lapierre and Sergio Hernandez, a train forming owing to the difficulty of overtaking on this circuit.
Nonetheless Monfardini was determined to try: for lap after lap he hounded Pantano for the final points position, and lap after lap Pantano was determined to make the most of his re-entry into the series after just missing today's pole, which he had lost to Viso on the last lap yesterday.
The pressure finally told on lap nineteen, when Pantano ran wide and over the edge of the gravel trap at the final corner, and Monfardini scampered through for sixth, while back at the front the first four drivers were running together on track, each running as near to perfect laps as they could to hold position.
Further back and there was more heartache for Hiroki Yoshimoto: the Japanese driver retired his wayward looking car once again when he pulled up at the end of the pitlane at what is effectively his home race, while Lapierre was unable to add to his points tally after retiring in the pits on lap 22.
After 26 laps of relentless pressure Viso claimed the win ahead of Piquet, Premat and Hamilton, with the four drivers split by just 2.3 seconds. Further back Gommendy was fifth for his second points score in as many races, while Monfardini picked up the final point with Gimmi Bruni also scoring for the fastest lap of the race.
The podium finish for Piquet meant the Brazilian regained the championship lead over Hamilton by 39 points to 37, ahead of Premat on 27, Viso on 26 and Lapierre on 25.
