2006 Imola Feature Race

The 2006 Imola Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2006 Imola GP2 Series Race 1, was the third race of the 2006 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, on 22 April 2006. The race, held in support of the XXVI Gran Premio Foster's di San Marino, would see Gianmaria Bruni score his second GP2 victory, in only the third race for new team Trident Racing.

The Italian racer would be the man to beat at the start of the weekend too, with Bruni sweeping to his second GP2 pole position in qualifying. He would beat José María López to pole by a quarter of a second, while the Argentine bested Lewis Hamilton to complete the front row after the Brit had led the majority of the session.

The start saw Bruni blast away from the grid to secure the lead, while Hamilton dragged Hiroki Yoshimoto past López to dump the Argentine to fourth, although was found to have jumped the start. Nelson Piquet Jr. would likewise harass López into the first corner, although the Brazilian racer would only manage to nudge the back of the Super Nova.

After that the race quickly settled with Bruni escaping into the lead with Hamilton in tow, while Yoshimoto solidified third. Behind, López's race ended at the end of the opening tour with a hydraulic failure, while Lucas di Grassi was up to fourteenth after a busy opening tour from the back of the grid.

Unfortunately for di Grassi his race would end soon after his early compulsory stop, with the Brazilian racer crashing heavily at Villeneuve to trigger a Safety Car. That prompted a wave of stops from the leaders, with Hamilton exiting the pitlane from his drive-through moments after the SC as scrambled before passing the Safety Car illegally when Adrián Vallés and Félix Porteiro were waved past.

That earned Hamilton a disqualification later in the race, despite the fact that he managed to get ahead of Bruni in-spite of serving his drive-through. When the race resumed Hamilton would build a small leader before his DSQ was awarded, handing the lead to Bruni, with Yoshimoto, Piquet, Alexandre Prémat, Lapierre and Michael Ammermüller forming the lead peleton.

Yoshimoto was the next man to drop out of contention after he was handed a drive-through for speeding in the pits, while Piquet's pace collapsed with an issue to dump him back. Elsewhere, Luca Filippi and Ferdinando Monfardini clashed over eighth, Tristan Gommendy was taken out by Fairuz Fauzy, while Adam Carroll spun himself out of the race while defending from Ernesto Viso.

Out front, meanwhile, Bruni ran unopposed to the chequered flag to secure his second victory, while also collecting the bonus point for fastest lap as well as pole. Ammermüller would claim second with a late move on teammate Lapierre in the closing stages, Prémat secured fourth, while Piquet finished fifth to maintain his early Championship lead. Viso was next up in sixth, while Timo Glock and Yoshimoto survived the mid-to-late race chaos to claim the final points and the front-row for the Sprint Race for BCN Competición.

Background
The FIA GP2 Series reunited with the FIA Formula One World Championship for its second round of the season, staged two weeks after the junior formulae's season opener in Valencia. Furthermore, the second round would see GP2 return to a circuit for the first time, with the Series arriving in Imola, Italy, to race around the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari for a second time in its history. The Autodromo itself was unchanged since the 2005 visit, with the field likewise unmodified after the trip to Valencia.

Valencian Virtues
Fourth in the Valencia Sprint was enough to ensure that Nelson Piquet Jr. ended the opening weekend of the season atop the Championship, the Brazilian racer leaving Spain on sixteen points. Nicolas Lapierre, meanwhile, had risen to second ahead of Lewis Hamilton, six and seven points respectively off the lead, while Michael Ammermüller and Ernesto Viso completed the top five. Adrián Vallés, Gianmaria Bruni and José María López were the only other scorers after the opening two races.

In the Teams' Championship it was Arden International who rounded out the opening weekend in the lead, having claimed eighteen points in the opening two races. That left them two ahead of Piquet Sports, while ART Grand Prix were in third on nine. iSport International, Campos Racing, Trident Racing and Super Nova Racing were the other opening weekend scorers.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Qualifying
Qualifying for the inaugural GP2 Series race would be staged via a thirty minute session on Friday afternoon, ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday. All 24 drivers would venture onto the circuit during the session, and were allowed to complete as many laps as they could to set their qualifying time. There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of Bridgestone tyres.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * di Grassi was excluded from the results of qualifying after failing post-race scrutineering (illegal side skirts).

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Vallés recorded the fastest lap of the race (1:35.261) but started the race from the pitlane so was ineligible to claim the bonus point.
 * † Hamilton was disqualified from the race for overtaking the Safety Car.

Milestones

 * Second pole position for Gianmaria Bruni.
 * Trident Racing claimed their maiden pole position as an entrant in the GP2 Series.
 * Bruni secured his second victory.
 * Maiden win for Trident Racing as an entrant.
 * Timo Glock secured his maiden points finish.
 * First fastest lap recorded by Bruni.
 * Bruni became the second driver to claim a maximum score in a GP2 Feature Race.

Standings
Fifth in the Imola Feature was enough for Nelson Piquet Jr. to retain the lead in the Championship, although his early advantage had been cut to just two points. Indeed, victory for Gianmaria Bruni had catapulted the Italian racer up to second on eighteen points, while Michael Ammermüller had similarly risen to third, a further two behind. Nicolas Lapierre, meanwhile had slipped to fourth despite adding to his tally, while Lewis Hamilton ended the day in fifth, eleven off the lead.

In the Teams' Championship it had been a good afternoon for Arden International, as they managed to extended their initial lead to twelve points. Piquet Sports had held second on twenty points, while Trident Racing had leapt into third after their maiden triumph. ART Grand Prix/GP2 Series had made way for them and slipped to fourth ahead of iSport International, while BCN Competición were on the board in eighth.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.