After an enthralling first half to the 2006 season, and ahead of the mid-season test in Paul Ricard next week, the GP2 series has today announced the viewership totals from its debut season in 2005. The figures from the inaugural year have been collated by Formula One Management, utilising practices and formulas honed over the years in the writing of the official broadcast statistics of the Formula One World Championship, taking into consideration live, delayed and highlights shows as well as newsreels.

In 2005, the GP2 series had a total of 95,460,733 viewers in 100 countries across the globe. With 5148 broadcasts going out to these territories, 238,212 minutes of footage was shown in total over the course of the debut season.

The season got off to a great start when 28,898 minutes of footage was shown from the very first round in Imola, doubling up with footage of the April GP2 series launch. Over seven million fans caught the action at the first race on television from 642 broadcasts. From here, the race-by race broadcast numbers levelled out at a highly respectable average of 410 for the remaining 11 rounds. The average viewership per round over the entire season actually worked out higher than the impressive debut, with 7,955,061 tuning in per weekend. Incredibly, Monza had the fewest broadcasts with 213 for the weekend, but the popularity of the series by this point of the season was clear to see as despite the comparatively low number of individual broadcasts, it was at this race that we pulled in the most viewers of the year… an astonishing 9,968,054.

In terms of popularity per country, it was Finland which came out on top. 20,432,000 viewers watched their man Heikki Kovalainen do battle with Nico Rosberg, son of Finland's first F1 World Champion Keke, for the title. Nico of course races under the German flag, and it should come as little surprise that his homeland's totals add up to the second placed figure of 12,710,000 viewers. With three teams from their country and a wealth of driver talent at the wheel in the GP2 series, it was Spain who came third in the viewership totals with 11,768,000, followed closely by Austria on 11,065,000. The pan-European total collected by Eurosport came to 10,762,000, with Britain rounding out the top six on 7,800,000 viewers.

The GP2 series was shown across the world, from Albania to Azerbaijan, the United States to Ukraine, Sweden to Saudi Arabia, the Vatican State to Venezuela. The 2005 broadcast figures, like the racing we are treated to week in week out, can leave no doubt as to the success and popularity of the GP2 series so early in its life.

Bruno Michel, GP2 series organiser: "The broadcast statistics for our inaugural season do indeed make interesting and promising reading. To have made so many fans in such a short space of time reflects, more than anything, the spectacular show we are able to put on in the GP2 series. As I have said many times, it is thanks to our fantastic teams and the quality of their drivers on track that makes the GP2 series the success it has proved to be over the past year and a half. Of course we are indebted to FOM for the fantastic quality of the broadcasts they produce for the series, and our thanks must once again go to Mr Ecclestone and his dedicated team on the ground at every race who work so hard to bring the fans the best of the action from all of our races."