Lees went to his fifty soon after, with the milestone coming from 96 deliveries and he was joined in the middle by England Lions man Ben McKinney, who looked good in the early stages of his innings.
McKinney continued to underline his attacking intentions as he plundered a McCann ball straight down the ground to the boundary, but shortly after he edged an Abbas ball to Kyle Verreynne to depart for 28.
Lees continued to tick along nicely with Gay joining him in the middle and the ex-Northamptonshire man helped Durham steer the ship in the face of some tight bowling from the visitors.
Lees then picked up a rare boundary as he pulled a Lord delivery to the rope to relieve a bit of pressure and Gay followed that up with a nice shot through the covers.
Gay got a second life just before tea, after he edged a Lyndon James ball towards Joe Clarke at first slip but he could not take the chance with the Durham man on 30.
However, they did get a big breakthrough in the next over as Lees was caught behind for 82 with Liam Patterson-White the one to get the Durham skipper.
Nottinghamshire’s economical bowling continued into the evening session as Gay and new batter Colin Ackermann struggled to find the boundary, but the latter broke the shackles as he drove a Patterson-White ball down the ground for four.
Gay was making the league leaders pay for the drop as he became the third Durham player to pass fifty in the innings, with his coming from a more attritional 113 balls.
The second new ball came for Nottinghamshire and runs started to flow for Ackermann who played a delightful shot off Abbas for four, but he then departed for 37 as he edged a beauty from Abbas to Verreynne behind the stumps to give the visitors a much-needed breakthrough.
Ollie Robinson joined Gay at the crease and played a lovely shot through the covers to take Durham to the 300 mark and the pair took Durham to stumps without further loss.
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