In a close battle between the two highest championship contenders, Marvin Diesnt narrowly beat rival Joel Eriksson in a race that ended under the safety car. This allows Dienst to slightly extend his lead in the drivers’ championship.
Dienst wouldn’t have the best of starts off the line, as a result he would fall behind Eriksson at the start. The two drivers broke away from the pack and continued to extend their advantage over the rest of the field. Breaking away even after the two mid-race safety cars.
Dienst would make the most of a mistake from Eriksson early on to take the lead before the second safety car neutralised the race. From there on out, it was all about Dienst controlling the race as he broke away from Eriksson in the closing stages.
The third safety car cut his lead but the German will be happy to come away with another 25 points as he continues his run of wins and excellent form. While Eriksson knows he’ll need to hit back in race two.
The final safety car was because of a wild move with two minutes to go. Having just been overtaken by Janneau Esmeijer, Australian Joey Mawson was under threat from Robert Shwartzman behind. The Russian made the lunge into the first corner, but hit Esmeijer in the process. Both drivers retired with suspension damage.
Tim Zimmermann landed his second podium of the year, while the last minute crash promoted the drivers behind. Mawson loses ground in the championship having finished fourth, while Mick Schumacher drove a clean race to finish as the top rookie in fifth.
Schumacher had started twelfth but moved up to ninth by the end of the first lap. He was running in eighth for the final portion of the race, but was promoted after avoiding the crash ahead.
Team mate Harrison Newey was sixth and David Beckmann seventh. Beckmann had made a good start and as running third early on after Mawson’s early mistake. However; he ran wide and fell to eleventh. Despite this he slowly worked his way back up the field to be the second highest rookie.
Mike Ortmann and Michael Waldherr made the most of the crash to claim fortunate points, finishing eighth and tenth respectively. While a poor last lap from local driver Kim-Luis Schramm saw him fall to ninth, after he was running fourth.
