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Mirko Bortolotti won the opening round of the Formula 2 championship in emphatic fashion as he led every lap at Silverstone.

The Italian made a great getaway from pole position, broke away from Will Bratt and Miki Monras by the end of the opening lap, and steadily pulled further and further away, eventually winning by 5.3 seconds.

It was Bortolotti's second Formula 2 win and the first for the former Toro Rosso Formula 1 test driver since Brno in 2009.

Behind him, the top five finished as they completed the first lap, with Bratt only occasionally coming under pressure from series debutant Monras - who bogged down at the start and dropped behind the British driver.

Mihai Marinescu finished a solid fourth, albeit 19s behind Bortolotti, while Ramon Pineiro took advantage when Alex Brundle ran wide at The Loop on the opening lap to secure an impressive fifth spot that he would hold to the end, ahead of Tobias Hegewald.

Brundle was on course for a solid top 10 spot until he was first passed by Christopher Zanella wth five laps to go, and then suffered a punctured left-rear tyre, dropping him to a lapped 19th by the finish.

Instead it was Zanella - who had earlier made a brilliant move on Jack Clarke around the outside at Stowe - who finished seventh, ahead of Clarke and Max Snegirev.

Snegirev took advantage when a wheel-to-wheel dice between Johannes Theobald and Tom Gladdis led to the pair pushing each other wide exiting Club and leaving a gap big enough for the Russian to slot his car through.

Gladdis banged wheels with Snegirev heading into Abbey as the Briton tried in vain to regain the position, but both emerged unscathed. Gladdis secured 10th while Theobald's hopes of a point vanished when he and Kelvin Snoeks took each other off at Luffield at half distance.

Results - 21 laps: Pos Driver Time/Gap 1. Mirko Bortolotti 39m36.405s 2. Will Bratt + 5.337s 3. Miki Monras + 6.929s 4. Mihai Marinescu + 19.381s 5. Ramon Pineiro + 26.243s 6. Tobias Hegewald + 27.072s 7. Christopher Zanella + 28.901s 8. Jack Clarke + 40.496s 9. Maxim Snegirev + 45.852s 10. Tom Gladdis + 53.612s 11. Armaan Ebrahim + 54.607s 12. Mikkel Mac + 58.323s 13. Benjamin Lariche + 59.945s 14. Thiemo Storz + 1m03.601s 15. James Cole + 1m04.747s 16. Jose Luis Abadin + 1m24.152s 17. Julian Theobald + 1m29.379s 18. Parthiva Sureshwaren + 1 lap 19. Alex Brundle + 1 lap 20. Sung-Hak Mun + 2 laps Retirements: Plamen Kralev 14 laps Kelvin Snoeks 12 laps Johannes Theobald 11 laps Natalia Kowalska 11 laps