Wickens wins dramatic race in Hockenheim

After an abandoned start and second formation lap Race 1 at Hockenheimring got underway, but before the first lap was complete chaos ensued. Polesitter Josef Newgarden (promoted after practice penalties) had a good start off the line, but it wasn't enough to hold off a charging Wickens. The Status driver passed both James Jakes from Manor Racing and Newgarden in quick succession, but before the Canadian could make the most of his lead the safety car was deployed for a race incident further down the grid . Jenzer Motorsport's Nico Mullerr, RSC Mucke Motorsport's Nigel Melker, MW Arden's Miki Monras and Leonardo Cordeiro and Carlin's Lucas Foresti all collided in Turn 2 and had to retire.

Robert Wickens, (CAN, Status Grand Prix) celebrates victory on the podium. Credit: Glenn Dunbar/GP3 Media

Wickens held on to his lead at the restart, but Newgarden's race went from bad to worse when he was passed by RSC Mucke Motorsport's Renger van der Zande and ART Grand Prix's Esteban Gutierrez. However, the restart was short lived when Status GP's Daniel Morad, ART's Alexander Rossi and MW Arden's Michael Christensen clashed causing the second red flag of the race and prematurely ending the race for all three, albeit Morad continued for a further four laps.

After the second restart the field settled into the remainder of the race but lap 6 saw the end of the race for three more drivers: Manor Racing's Rio Haryanto, Addax Team's Pablo Sanchez Lopez and RSC Mucke's Tobias Hegewald after the three came together. Wickens started putting clean air between him and second placed man Jakes and consistently posted fastest laps throughout. By the final stages of the race the top four had pulled away from the remainder of the pack with over five seconds between them and fifth place man Stefano Coletti, the Tech 1 Racing driver capitalising on others. misfortune to move up from 14th on the grid.

The final drama of the race came on the last lap between Newgarden and Merhi. The Carlin and Atech CRS GP drivers. clashing putting an end to Newgarden's dismal race and promoting Daniel Juncadella to reversed pole position for tomorrow's race.

Wickens crossed the line to take his first victory followed by Jake and van der Zande took the final podium spot for RSC Mucke Motorsport despite race long pressure from Series leader Gutierrez in fourth. Coletti finished in fifth spot ahead of Addax Team's Mirko Bortolotti and the Italian's teammate Felipe Guimaraes. Juncadella took the final point of the race for Tech 1 Racing. The action continues tomorrow at 09:25 local time with Race 2.

Full Race 1 results:

CAR  #  Driver            Team                  Laps Time        Gap

1    4  R. WICKENS        Status Grand Prix      17  29:40.963   
2    7  J. JAKES          Manor Racing           17  29:43.358   2.395
3   11  R. VAN DER ZANDE  RSC Muecke Motorsport  17  29:44.542   3.579
4    2  E. GUTIERREZ      ART Grand Prix         17  29:44.963   4.000
5   27  S. COLETTI        Tech 1 Racing          17  29:52.299  11.336
6   19  M. BORTOLOTTI     Addax Team             17  29:52.866  11.903
7   17  F. GUIMARAES      Addax Team             17  29:53.474  12.511
8   28  D. JUNCADELLA     Tech 1 Racing          17  30:01.315  20.352
9   15  D. SMITH          Carlin                 17  30:01.935  20.972
10  26  D. SECHELARIU     Tech 1 Racing          17  30:02.312  21.349
11  24  S. TRUMMER        Jenzer Motorsport      17  30:02.610  21.647
12  23  P. VARHAUG        Jenzer Motorsport      17  30:04.300  23.337
13  30  O. OAKES          Atech CRS GP           17  30:06.425  25.462
14   3  P. NUNES          ART Grand Prix         17  30:08.059  27.096
15  31  V. GHIRELLI       Atech CRS GP           17  30:13.759  32.796
16  29  R. MERHI          Atech CRS GP           17  30:21.052  40.089
17   5  I. LUKASHEVICH    Status Grand Prix      17  30:21.166  40.203
18  14  J. NEWGARDEN      Carlin                 16  28:24.369     DNF
                                                                   
NC
     6  D. MORAD          Status Grand Prix       7  14:08.440     DNF
     8  R. HARYANTO       Manor Racing            6  12:27.765     DNF
    18  P. SANCHEZ LOPEZ  Addax Team              6  12:28.257     DNF
    12  T. HEGEWALD       RSC Muecke Motorsport   6  12:58.107     DNF
    20  M. CHRISTENSEN    MW Arden                3   6:17.859     DNF
     1  A. ROSSI          ART Grand Prix          3   6:18.664     DNF
    25  N. MULLER         Jenzer Motorsport       0                DNF
    10  N. MELKER         RSC Muecke Motorsport   0                DNF
    21  M. MONRAS         MW Arden                0                DNF
    22  L. CORDEIRO       MW Arden                0                DNF
    16  L. FORESTI        Carlin                  0                DNF
     9  A. QUAIFE-HOBBS   Manor Racing            0                DNS

FASTEST LAP
     4  R. WICKENS        Status GP 1:33.080 LAP 15

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