Wittmann wins Hockenheim race one

Poleman Wittmann got too much wheelspin at the start, allowing fellow front-row starter Daniel Juncadella (Prema) to lead into Turn 1. Wittmann ran wide there, side-by-side with Mortara, but just held second on the run to Turn 2, where all hell let loose as sixth-place qualifier Alexander Sims (ART) flew over the back of Laurens Vanthoor (Signature) and into retirement.

Juncadella made a mistake at Turn 2, allowing Wittmann and Mortara to get a run on him down to the Spitzkehre hairpin. Wittmann towed around his outside, and got to the apex first, but Mortara failed to repeat the move, and had to wait another two corners to demote Juncadella to third.

After that Juncadella's race quickly fell apart, as he slid wide on the exit of the Mercedes Arena, and would eventually finish eighth after a scrappy sequence of corners.

Wittmann and Mortara ran closely matched for the opening 12 laps until Mortara realised his team-mate was not going to make a mistake, and dropped back by 6.4 seconds by the flag.

Valtteri Bottas finished third for ART despite an engine problem that caused his Dallara-Mercedes to bog down exiting slow corners. In trying to make up for it, he threw his car through the gravel at the Mobil Kurve, but somehow stayed ahead of the close-following Roberto Merhi (Mucke).

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs drove well to finish fifth for Motopark, ahead of Esteban Gutierrez (ART).

Pos  Driver                  Team       Car     Time/Gap
 1.  Marco Wittmann          Signature  D/V   28m16.473s
 2.  Edoardo Mortara         Signature  D/V     + 6.411s
 3.  Valtteri Bottas         ART        D/M    + 11.487s
 4.  Roberto Merhi           Mucke      D/M    + 12.027s
 5.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs     Motopark   D/V    + 14.355s
 6.  Esteban Gutierrez       ART        D/M    + 16.371s
 7.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Motopark   D/V    + 19.245s
 8.  Daniel Juncadella       Prema      D/M    + 21.712s
 9.  Matias Laine            Motopark   D/V    + 26.183s
10.  Nicolas Marroc          Prema      D/M    + 26.378s
11.  Jimmy Eriksson          Motopark   D/V    + 37.116s
12.  Luis Jorge Sa Silva     Motopark   D/V  + 1m07.132s
13.  Jim Pla                 ART        D/M  + 1m15.664s
14.  Carlos Munoz            Mucke      D/M  + 1m16.203s
15.  Sandro Zeller           Jo Zeller  D/M     + 3 laps

Retirements:

     Laurens Vanthoor        Signature  D/V  1 lap
     Alexander Sims          ART        D/M  0 laps