Gimmi Bruni has taken an emphatic win in front of his home crowd in race one at Imola, dominating the opposition by taking the chequered flag by more than 10 seconds ahead of the Arden pairing of Michael Ammermüller and Nicolas Lapierre.

The race started perfectly for the Trident driver when he made a quick getaway at the start, as fellow front row starter Jose Maria Lopez fell back into the clutches of Lewis Hamilton and Hiroki Yoshimoto, who were both past the Argentine by turn one. Lopez was dropping down the grid like a stone, and was out of the race almost immediately, his car unable to pick up any power.

At the front Hamilton was attacking Bruni all over the track, but the Italian was able to control the pace before easing away from the Briton with a string of fastest laps to establish a comfortable early lead. Further back Lucas di Grassi was on a charge, pushing from the back of the grid up to fourteenth by lap four, while ahead of him Nelson Piquet Jr muscled his way past his close rival Adam Carroll at Variente Bassa to claim sixth place, with Alex Premat and Ammermüller between them and the top three drivers.

Just as the race appeared to be settling into a rhythm on lap eight, di Grassi's strong charge came to an end at Villeneuve, losing the rear of the car on track and then also against the wall, with an innocent Olivier Pla also out of the race after hitting the wayward rear wing.

The inevitable safety car was out, and the top nine drivers were all straight into the pits. Hamilton looked to have won the battle of the pitlane, but he had actually done his drive through penalty for jumping the start rather than his compulsory pitstop. He sped off down the road, following the two Campos drivers past the safety car as they were waved past for being a lap down, before coming back to the pitlane for his pitstop and then joining the queue on track.

In front of him the drivers lined up behind the safety car were Bruni, Yoshimoto, Piquet, Premat, Lapierre, Ammermüller, Ernesto Viso and Carroll.

They were let loose to race again, and Piquet ran slightly wide but had the inside line for the final chicane, squeezing inside Yoshimoto and into second place. The Japanese driver then had Premat on his tail, with the Frenchman losing out to his countryman Lapierre for fourth one lap later.

Hamilton was soon into the pits once again, but this time he wasn't coming out – he had been black flagged for overtaking the safety car, and all of his hard work had been for nothing.

At the front of the race Bruni was unflappable, pulling out a four second lead over Piquet, who himself was more than seven seconds up the road from the battling Yoshimoto by lap 17.

Yoshimoto was at the front of a train of drivers – Lapierre, Ammermüller, Premat and Carroll – but was holding his own until he was called into the pits for a drive through penalty, the result of speeding in the pitlane, which pushed him down to thirteenth.

Impressively, new FMS driver Luca Filippi was able to come through to be in eighth position, although fellow Italian Ferdinando Monfardini was determined to take the spot from him to put himself on pole for tomorrow's race. He tried too hard, however, putting his nose inside Filippi at Variente Alta when there was no room for it, and both drivers were off the road, as Zuber gratefully took eighth in the process.

Ahead of him Viso was piling the pressure onto the rear of Adam Carroll's car. The normally imperturbable Ulsterman would be guaranteed to hold his line, but a small error pitched his car into a spin and out of the race, as Viso moved up to sixth.

Zuber was the next man in the wars – his left rear tyre apparently damaged from debris on track, and he was dropping back into the clutches of Tristan Gommendy. The Frenchman was soon through, much to the surprise of Fairuz Fauzy, all but a lap down and just ahead on track.

As Gommendy went to pass Fauzy he was pushed wide, and the inevitable impact had both cars into the gravel trap and retirement at Turn 7, promoting the BCN drivers into the points. Zuber, his tyre at its end, retired on the same corner.

Back at the front of the pack of Bruni was sailing serenely on, but Piquet was clearly slowing, losing two seconds a lap to his pursuers. Ammermüller, who had spent most of the race on his teammate's rear wing, finally found a way past Lapierre on lap 30 and was soon hunting down the Brazilian ahead of him.

Piquet was willing his car home, but it wasn't enough – with two laps to go the German was effortlessly past and into second place behind Bruni, who eased his pace but still claimed the honours by 10.9 seconds ahead of Ammermüller.

Lapierre was next past Piquet, disappointed to have lost out to his teammate but still on the podium, with Premat the next man by in fourth. Piquet limped across the line in fifth place, with Viso just unable to catch him.

The final two points positions were filled by Timo Glock and Yoshimoto, whose heartache at losing a podium finish will be mitigated slightly by pole for tomorrow's race, while Bruni also claimed another point for the fastest lap of an eventful first race in Imola.