Evans takes comfortable first win

The MW Arden driver led from lights to flag, but it could have been so different had he not recovered from a sluggish start on the long run to the first corner.

Evans bogged down as the lights went out, and fellow front-row starter Andrea Calderelli was immediately alongside. The Italian had the inside line for the drag race to Turn 1, but he did not have the straightline speed to stay alongside for the corner.

After that Evans was never under any pressure, and he set about edging away from the chasing pack to take a comfortable win.

Caldarelli ended up losing much more than a shot at victory, as a fast-starting James Calado (ART) got around the outside of him into Turn 1 on the opening lap, and Aaro Vainio took third from him just a few corners later.

Caldarelli spent the whole race putting his Tech 1 team-mate under pressure, and it started to tell as Vainio repeatedly locked his left front wheel in the big braking zones in the latter stages.

The Finn had two major lock-ups on the final lap, but neither were enough to allow Calderelli to get alongside.

There was no other action in the top 10 in what proved to be quite a dull race. Caldarelli had to keep an eye on his mirrors as Jenzer's Nico Muller was in striking distance throughout, but he never looked like making an attempt to pass.

Nigel Melker, Dean Smith and Tamas Pal Kiss rounded out the points, meaning that Kiss will start from pole position for race two on Sunday morning.

Results - 16 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team         Time/Gap
 1.  Mitch Evans             MW Arden   27m19.175s
 2.  James Calado            ART          + 1.885s
 3.  Aaro Vainio             Tech 1       + 7.224s
 4.  Andrea Caldarelli       Tech 1       + 7.432s
 5.  Nico Muller             Jenzer       + 7.751s
 6.  Nigel Melker            RSC Mucke    + 8.574s
 7.  Dean Smith              Addax        + 8.790s
 8.  Tamas Pal Kiss          Tech 1      + 10.328s
 9.  Vittorio Ghirelli       Jenzer      + 11.930s
10.  Valtteri Bottas         ART         + 13.495s
11.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs     Manor       + 15.294s
12.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Status      + 20.311s
13.  Gabby Chaves            Addax       + 20.611s
14.  Lewis Williamson        MW Arden    + 21.230s
15.  Pedro Nunes             ART         + 24.071s
16.  Zoel Amberg             Atech CRS   + 26.521s
17.  Ivan Lukashevich        Status      + 27.071s
18.  Michael Christensen     RSC Mucke   + 27.770s
19.  Matias Laine            Manor       + 32.782s
20.  Rio Haryanto            Manor       + 33.320s
21.  Conor Daly              Carlin      + 36.714s
22.  Luciano Bacheta         RSC Mucke   + 37.458s
23.  Leonardo Cordeiro       Carlin      + 44.098s
24.  Daniel Morad            Carlin      + 44.886s
25.  Nick Yelloly            Atech CRS   + 49.737s
26.  Marlon Stockinger       Atech CRS   + 51.623s
27.  Simon Trummer           MW Arden      + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Dominic Storey          Addax          9 laps
     Alexander Sims          Status         3 laps
     Maxim Zimin             Jenzer         0 laps