2005 - Nico Rosberg's year
The GP2 Series kicked off its life as the F1 support event of the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix. The Arden International team were instantly on the pace as Nicolas Lapierre took pole and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen won the first race. Come Sunday morning, Adam Carroll won Race 2 for Super Nova after a sideways pass on Alex Premat... the GP2 Series had arrived.

With four different winners in the first four races, the competitive nature of the championship was obvious from the start. With sporting regulations tweaked after Imola to ensure that a minimum of two tyres were changed in the now single compulsory pit-stop in the first race, the weekend format was simplified and started gaining fans.

A change to the F1 weekend format meant that at the Nurburgring, many F1 viewers were treated to their first glimpse of the series on Sunday morning television as Clivio Piccione won one of the most exciting races of 2005. At the mid-point of the season, Heikki Kovalainen led the championship battle, with Adam Carroll and Gimmi Bruni hot on his heels. However, in the second half of the season Heikki would meet a new rival, ART Grand Prix’s Nico Rosberg.

Nico won his first race on Sunday in France, and after that was one of the fastest drivers wherever the series raced. Further wins would come his way in Britain and Germany as he started to cut chunks out of Heikki’s championship lead. Thrilling races at the new Turkish venue, coupled with two classics at Monza and the torrential rain of Spa, meant that when the series arrived for its season finale in Bahrain, Heikki and Nico were separated by just three points. And then Nico did something amazing. He pulled off the first weekend double win, and in so doing was crowned the first ever GP2 Series champion.

2006 - Lewis Hamilton is champion
The 2006 season came around in a flash, and after a winter filled with testing, a new look championship was ready for the off at the season opening event in Valencia. A 13th team was making its debut along with the new Bridgestone slick tyres and a certain Lewis Hamilton... the man who would be king. Nelson Piquet Jr was back for a second season and won the first race of the year to take a championship lead going to Imola. A return to a familiar track saw a weekend of firsts as new boys Trident and then iSport won races.

At the Nurburgring Lewis was on fire to record only the second weekend double in GP2 Series history. After losing  the win in Spain on the last lap thanks to a nudge from his team-mate, Lewis won again in Monaco and at Silverstone he was untouchable on home soil taking another amazing double win. In France a pair of ex-F1 team-mates took the spoils as Glock and Pantano won the races. Timo would also win again next time out in Germany.

In Hungary, Nelson did the seemingly impossible and took the first ever perfect weekend, following it with a Race 1 win in Turkey. Lewis spun in Race 2 and put in the drive of his life to snatch second place on the last lap. The Brazilian and the Brit would take it down to the wire, in Monza. Local hero Giorgio Pantano was on form and stole the first race in Italy in front of an adoring crowd, but when he had his fastest lap point taken from him for ignoring yellow flags, Lewis was confirmed as the 2006 champion.

Giorgio won again on Sunday with the champion on his tail, and an overjoyed Lewis delighted the crowds with donuts on the main straight to celebrate the end of an amazing year.

2007 - Timo Glock takes the title
The 2007 GP2 Series season began in April at the Bahrain International Circuit, and completed on 30 September at the Circuit de Valencia. Eventual champion Timo Glock was a driving force throughout the series, but came under stiff competition from Lucas di Grassi in the closing stages- however, with a convincing win at the last race in Valencia, Glock sealed the championship.