Mitch Evans won round 10 of the GP3 Series at Hockenheim in Germany on Sunday morning, but the event was interrupted – and pretty much ruined – by two big accidents that required medical attention for Vicky Piria and Fabiano Machado.
Lotus's Daniel Abt was the early leader, a rocket-like start taking him past poleman Evans (MW Arden), who spent the run to the first corner, squeezing Tamas Pal Kiss toward the pit wall to retain second place.
The race was soon interrupted by a lengthy safety car after a lap one crash that involved Piria. Her Trident car was overtaken by Kevin Ceccon's Ocean machine, who was lunging wildly down the inside of the Spitzkehre hairpin after being relegated from third to 17th after yesterday's race for a rules infringement. Apparently distracted by Ceccon, who was going so fast he spun at the exit, she rode over the back of Robert Cregan's Ocean car and was launched into the air, landing just before a second, even harsher impact with Will Buller's Carlin machine, which launched her skyward again.
Piria stopped short of the tire wall, but needed to be extracted while still in her seat, which took up seven laps of the race under the safety car.
At the restart, Evans wasted little time in lining up a pass on Abt. Evans made a superbly judged outbraking move at Spitzkehre to grab the lead, taking fastest lap on that tour despite that. He was fastest of all on the next lap too, to extended a 1.1sec lead over Abt when the safety car was required again.
This time, Fabiano Machado's Marussia Manor car ran wide at Turn 1 and was launched into the air when he hit a bump in the grass. The severity of the landing caused him such pain that he was unable to get out of the car, and the ambulance was required at the scene.
The race finished under the safety car in the order Evans, Abt, Daly (who passed Pal Kiss at the hairpin on the opening lap), Pal Kiss, Matias Laine, Aaro Vainio, Tio Ellinas and Giovanni Venturini. Evans extends his championship lead, with 121 points against Vainio's 103.