ALEX Lynn showed every bit of his racing pedigree as his love of the Circuit de Catalunya continued at the start of the 2016 GP2 Series.

The 22-year-old from Dunmow overcame a number of setbacks in the season-opening feature race in Barcelona to claim sixth-place and then followed that with an imperious display in taking victory in the next day’s sprint race.

His win was a repeat of the result from the GP2 sprint event in 2015 and was Lynn’s third consecutive success at the Spanish track after a win there in the GP3 Series in 2014.

The DAMS Racing driver’s 2016 result was one built on some superb racing in the opening part of the 26-lap race.

Lynn had a tremendous start, racing wheel-to-wheel with his compatriot Jordan King and making an audacious move to take second from third on the grid.

That sent him after leader, and his former Formula Three team-mate Rafaele Marciello, who he managed to pass into the first corner on lap four.

It was a move that allowed Lynn to manage the race and more importantly his Pirelli tyres, from the front.

He pulled out a lead from his team-mate of last year, Pierre Gasly, that he was able to maintain until a big accident for Prema Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi on lap 23 that saw the race end under a safety car with Lynn still out in front.

It brought a healthy points haul for the man from Essex from his opening weekend after the eight that he picked up the day before despite a number of problems in the feature event.

Lynn said: “It’s a really special feeling to win on the first weekend of the season, especially after the first day didn’t go quite as we wanted it to.

“The team have worked so hard over the winter to make sure the car is up to standard and I wanted to deliver a big result for them.

“I think it’s going to be a battle (for the title) until the end this year and I woke up before the sprint race knowing I needed a result after the first day.

“I can’t let anyone get too far in front as we all have (title) aspirations so this result was very important.”

The feature race wasn’t quite as straightforward, though, as Lynn had a testing time on his way to taking sixth at the chequered flag.

Having qualified third on the first grid of the year, Lynn was crowded out at the start and slipped back.

Having started on super-soft Pirelli tyres, he used an early safety car period as an opportunity to make his compulsory change to the harder compound rubber.

But his strategy was only partly successful as a late safety car period played into the hands of his rivals and those changing from hard to soft compounds in the latter stages were also able to profit as Lynn had to be content with sixth place.