2007 Bahrain Feature Race

The 2007 Bahrain GP2 Series Race 1, otherwise known as the 2007 Bahrain Feature Race, was the opening round of the 2007 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Southern Governorate, Bahrain, on 14 April 2007. The race would see Luca Filippi claim his maiden victory, a win that would also restore Super Nova Racing to the top of the field after a barren 2006 campaign.

It had been a very busy winter for the GP2 Series, with major changes to the field including at defending Teams' Champions ART Grand Prix. Indeed, with Lewis Hamilton unable to defend his title and Alexandre Prémat leaving the Series, ART would hire Michael Ammermüller and Lucas di Grassi for the campaign, while elsewhere Piquet Sports and GP Racing merged to form Minardi Piquet Sports, which hired Roldán Rodríguez to replace Nelson Piquet Jr.

Qualifying would likewise see the order shuffled compared to how it had been during the winter, with Filippi sweeping to his maiden pole position, a relative upset given his pace during pre-season testing. His closest challenger would be Alexandre Negrão of the Minardi Piquet team, while Andreas Zuber and Lucas di Grassi shared the second row.

The first attempt to start the opening race of the season would be abandoned, however, as Giorgio Pantano and debutante Pastor Maldonado stalled on the grid. Fortunately they would both be removed without issue to allow the race to start, with Filippi instantly sprinting into the lead with Negrão making a poor getaway.

Indeed, Negrão would also get a whack from a fast starting Timo Glock into the first corner, which sent the Brazilian down to tenth as the German racer assumed second. Behind, Zuber held third ahead of Bruno Senna and di Grassi, while Antônio Pizzonia damaged his car on a kerb and caused Christian Bakkerud and Nicolas Lapierre to have wobbles as they avoided the errant FMS International entry.

The order soon stabilised, however, with Filippi leading the charge in the early laps ahead of Glock, while Zuber and co. held station behind. Elsewhere Rodríguez's debut came to a smokey end on the second tour with an engine failure, Conway dropped out with an issue of his own, while Pizzonia and Negrão both appeared to have damage and were struggling to keep their cars pointing in the right direction.

A third of the way into the race and the leaders began to dive into the pits for fresh Bridgestone tyres, with Glock the first to blink in a bid to undercut Filippi. However, the Italian racer would brave it out to be the last of the leaders to stop, and duly emerged ahead of the German racer as Christian Bakkerud assumed the lead on his debut.

Bakkerud led until he made his stop on lap nineteen, handing control back to Filippi who had escaped some six seconds up the road from Glock. Indeed, the top four in the field seemed to be settled with half the race still to run, leaving all of the attention on an all-out brawl for the remaining points.

Indeed, Zaugg, di Grassi, Lapierre, Borja García, Michael Ammermüller and Karun Chandhok would engage in a bruising battle for fifth through ninth, with Zaugg working hard to defend his position. Yet, the South African's resistance would be broken in the closing stages as di Grassi elbowed his way past, before Lapierre half-heartedly tried a lunge but could only manage to hold onto seventh.

Out front, meanwhile, Filippi claimed an impressive victory to put Super Nova Racing back into the winner's circuit, with Glock simply unable to match the Italian's pace throughout. Zuber completed the podium ahead of Senna, the best of the debutantes, with di Grassi, Zaugg, Lapierre and García claiming the remaining points. The bonus point for fastest lap, meanwhile, would be awarded to another debutante in the form of Kazuki Nakajima.

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:

Grid

 * * Pantano and Maldonado were unable to start the race at the second start after they stalled during the original aborted start.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.

Milestones

 * Debut race for Christian Bakkerud, Karun Chandhok, Kohei Hirate, Sérgio Jimenez, Kazuki Nakajima, Antônio Pizzonia, Roldán Rodríguez, Bruno Senna, Andy Soucek, Ho-Pin Tung, Sakon Yamamoto and Adrian Zaugg.
 * First entry for Pastor Maldonado.
 * Maiden pole position for Luca Filippi.
 * First win for Filippi.
 * Also Filippi's maiden podium finish.
 * Super Nova Racing claimed their fourth victory as an entrant.
 * Also their first win since the 2005 Spa Sprint Race.
 * Maiden points finish for Senna and Zaugg.
 * Kazuki Nakajima recorded his maiden fastest lap.
 * Also Nakajima's first points finish.

Standings
Luca Filippi ended the opening day of the season atop the Championship hunt, the Italian racer having claimed twelve points for taking pole and victory in the first race of the campaign. Timo Glock was next up in second, four off the early leader, with Andreas Zuber next up in third on six points. Bruno Senna, Lucas di Grassi, Adrian Zaugg, Nicolas Lapierre, Borja García and Kazuki Nakajima claimed the remaining points.

In the Teams' Championship it was iSport International who led the way on the opening day, a double podium ensuring they led the charge after one race. Super Nova Racing hence had to settle for second despite claiming victory on the opening day, two off the lead, while Arden International, ART Grand Prix, DAMS and Durango Corse were the other early scorers.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.