Andy Soucek took his first Formula 2 victory in an incident-packed second race at Brno today.

The Spaniard only started the race sixth but was in contention for the lead by the end of a hectic opening lap. Pole-sitter Henry Surtees and fellow front row starter Mikhail Aleshin both failed to make it off the line, and third-placed Mirko Bortolotti was also slow away.

There was a further pile-up at Turn 2 as Henri Karjalainen hit Alex Brundle, and Carlos Iaconelli, German Sanchez, Pietro Gandolfi, Jens Hoing and Robert Wickens - the latter with a clutch failure suffered on the way out of Turn 1 - were all sent into the gravel.

Nicola de Marco led Soucek after the restart, from Julien Jousse and Edoardo Piscopo. De Marco controlled the first half of the race until he spun out of the lead. The Italian rejoined in fourth and later reclaimed third, but any hope of a maiden victory was gone.

Soucek was handed the lead and didn't look back from there. Jousse had a quiet run to second, with Milos Pavlovic fifth behind de Marco and Piscopo.

Armaan Ebrahim completed the top six after Mirko Bortolottu spun out of the place mid-way through the race.

Results to follow