Maki wins delayed Brands race

The Finn, who started second on the grid, snatched the lead from Valtteri Bottas at the start, and then sustained pressure from his countryman throughout the race to take the win.

The race was completed in the afternoon after a long stoppage forced organisers to postpone the restart earlier in the day to allow DTM qualifying to take place on time.

The red flags were put out after Jules Bianchi and Tiago Geronimi had a heavy crash at Paddock Hill Bend, and Maki then made a good restart from behind the safety car when things got back underway several hours later.

Bottas closed in on the Signature driver once in the closing stages, but his challenge faded after he made an error at Graham Hill Bend, which forced him to focus on Christian Vietoris behind.

Vietoris took third from his Mucke Motorsport team-mate Alexander Sims at the start of the race, which means he has made up six points on championship leader Bianchi, reducing the Frenchman's lead to 19.

Sims threatened Vietoris on occasion after the restart, but after trying to pass him around the outside at Druids he was unable to challenge any further.

Behind the two Mucke cars, Christopher Zanella took his best result of the season with fifth, while Sam Bird took sixth place.

The British driver had been seventh for most of the race, but he made an opportunist pass on Esteban Gutierrez in the closing stages after the Mexican ran slightly wide at Paddock Hill Bend.

That means Gutierrez will start from the front row for Sunday's race, with pole position going to Brendon Hartley, who took a lonely eighth place.

The Carlin Motorsport driver had to withstand a few attacks from Roberto Merhi shortly after the restart, but the Manor driver faded after he had a big lock-up at Druids.

Pos Driver                Team           Car       Time/Gap
 1. Mika Maki             Signature      D/V     43m59.183s
 2. Valtteri Bottas       ART            D/M         +0.549
 3. Christian Vietoris    Mucke          D/M         +1.844
 4. Alexander Sims        Mucke          D/M         +5.150
 5. Christopher Zanella   Motopark       D/M         +5.870
 6. Sam Bird              Mucke          D/M         +6.674
 7. Esteban Gutierrez     ART            D/M         +7.089
 8. Brendon Hartley       Carlin         D/V        +10.216
 9. Roberto Merhi         Manor          D/M        +10.942
10. Jake Rosenzweig       Carlin         D/V        +13.074
11. Cesar Ramos           Manor          D/M        +14.498
12. Adrien Tambay         ART            D/M        +15.014
13. Jean-Karl Vernay      Signature      D/V        +16.197
14. Marco Wittmann        Mucke          D/M        +16.922
15. Henkie Waldschmidt    SG             D/M        +17.552
16. Tim Sandtler          Prema          D/M        +20.179
17. Pedro Nunes           Manor          D/M        +21.190
18. Andrea Caldarelli     SG             D/M        +21.654
19. Johan Jokinen         Kolles         D/V        +22.530
20. Basil Shaaban         Prema          D/M        +26.108

Retirements

    Nick Tandy            Kolles         D/V        22 laps
    Tiago Geronimi        Signature      D/V        10 laps
    Jules Bianchi         ART            D/M        10 laps
    Atte Mustonen         Motopark       D/M         3 laps