In perfect British style, the seventh 2012 round of the GP2 Series at Silverstone started off under a thick rainfall. After the qualifying session held yesterday, Race 1 went underway yesterdayat the classic venue in Northamptonshire.

The race started behind the safety-car due to the extremely wet asphalt, with Julian Leal taking-off from 16th place and Stphane Richelmi in 20th. After six long laps the race finally went green for 25 eventful laps, that featured several off-track exits and two more safety-car situations before the checkered waived.

Richelmi ended up in 14th place, while Julian Leal rounded out the top-20, the same spots they will hold on Sunday's race 2 grid. The final race of the weekend will start at 10:40 Italian time with live TV coverage on RAI2.

Stphane Richelmi, 14.

I think that there was nothing more that we could do today. At the start, we stayed behind the safety-car for several laps and then the race went processional with a really bad visibility. I fought with Van der Garde, but then the tires got overheated and I lost a bit in terms of performance. I was looking forward to the final stint of the race, because I had new tires, but right after the pit-stop we were slowed down by the safety-car twice again.

Julian Leal, 21.

In the first few laps things were more complicated than I thought. Maybe the tire pressure weren't the best for the track conditions we had today, but the situation improved lap after lap.  We decided to go for a late pit-stop and at that point we gambled for slicks. It could have been a race-winning move, but unfortunately the track stayed wet and we lost a lot of ground. It's a pity.