Alavaro Parente won on his first appearance for Super Nova in GP2 in the feature race at the Circuit de Catalunya, withstanding race-long pressure from Bruno Senna.
It was a very impressive performance from the Renault World Series champion, who started second on the grid but took an instant lead when pole sitter Pastor Maldonado stalled.
Romain Grosjean bounced back from a disappointing 11th on the grid to finish fifth behind Andreas Zuber and Giorgio Pantano.
Vitaly Petrov was sixth ahead of Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi, the Japanese inheriting pole position for tomorrow’s sprint race.
The first race for the new 2008-specification cars saw plenty of incident in the opening stages, with two pairs of cars colliding at the first corner on the second lap.
Any fears the new chassis would make overtaking more difficult were dispersed not least by Grosjean, who passed Buemi, Adrian Valles and Petrov as he moved though the field.