Hamilton Wins Race One

The Briton was unheaded throughout the shortened 34-lap event to eventually lead home German Sebastian Vettel and Paul di Resta, both of whom took their first podium finishes of the season. The race was cut short by one lap after hitting the maximum time limit of 30 minutes.

Hamilton's ASM teammate Adrian Sutil, his closest rival in the championship, had run second ahead of Vettel in the early stages of the race and was trading fastest laps with the leader but slowed after brushing the wall at the chicane on lap 13. He eventually stopped on lap 22 with engine problems.

Sutil's retirement left the way open for Vettel to take a fairly comfortable second, with di Resta also staying out of trouble to take third.

Franck Perera took fourth place, with Lucas di Grassi benefiting from the retirement of several other front-runners to take fifth ahead of Marco Bonanomi and Fabio Carbone.

Hamilton's other main rivals for the championship all had a disastrous time. Briton James Rossiter, who is third in the championship, retired on the first lap after he was tapped up the back by Perera going into the first corner and pushed up over the back of Kohei Hirate.

Loic Duval, who was fourth in the championship, caused the Safety Car to be called out on lap 20 after he ran over the back of Giedo van der Garde at the chicane. The Frenchman's car landed upside down and slid well down the escape road, although he was able to climb out of the upended car unaided.

The result has left Hamilton with a 41 points advantage over Sutil in the title chase.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver               Team                  Time
 1.  Lewis Hamilton       ASM F3                30:35.173
 2.  Sebastian Vettel     ASL Mucke Motorsport  +   3.040
 3.  Paul di Resta        Manor Motorsport      +   4.607
 4.  Franck Perera        Prema Powerteam       +   5.686
 5.  Lucas di Grassi      Manor Motorsport      +   9.244
 6.  Marco Bonanomi       Prema Powerteam       +  10.690
 7.  Fabio Carbone        Signature             +  13.771
 8.  Guillaume Moreau     Signature             +  17.752
 9.  Atila Abreu          ASL Mucke Motorsport  +  19.894
10.  Alejandro Nunez      HBR Motorsport        +  22.881
11.  Nico Verdonck        Team Midland          +  28.810
12.  Esteban Guerrieri    Team Midland          +  44.336
13.  Thomas Holzer        AM-Holzer Rennsport   +  1 lap
14.  Filip Salaquarda     Team I.S.R.           +  3 laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

Driver               Team            On Lap
Hannes Neuhauser     HBR Motorsport    24
Adrian Sutil         ASM F3            21
Giedo van der Garde  Team Rosberg      20
Loic Duval           Signature-Plus    19
Greg Franchi         Prema Powerteam    4
Kohei Hirate         Team Rosberg       1
James Rossiter       Signature-Plus     1