With 17 laps to go, Mailleux had stretched his lead out to some 3.6 seconds over Vernay, with Mortara and Hülkenberg beginning to close in on the back of van der Zande for the final podium position, and the Dutchman in turn ramping up the pressure on second-placed Vernay, who was rapidly given a wake-up call by his team.

Mailleux, though, was left to motor on untroubled to victory, with Vernay hanging onto the runner-up position by just half a second, ahead of van der Zande, Mortara, Hülkenberg and Clairay who rounded out the points-scorers.

The top ten was completed by top-placed rookie Waldschmidt, Koudai Tsukakoshi, Cheng and the unfortunate Lancaster.

“I knew that you can hardly overtake here,” related Mailleux afterwards, “so I was focussed on the start. I absolutely wanted to get that right and make it out of the first corner ahead of Jean-Karl Vernay, which I did. In the first laps, I tried to extend the gap over Jean-Karl. After that, I safely drove victory home.”

“I have a huge blister on my left hand,” explained Vernay, “so I am happy that I have finished on the podium in the first place. Franck Mailleux had a better start, and as he didn't make a mistake in the race, my chances of victory were gone. My race was good, but unfortunately the start wasn't.”

“Basically, after the start, my race was already run,” rued van der Zande. “I could close the gap to Jean-Karl Vernay, but whenever I was close behind him, I lost downforce and my car started sliding. Third place is a good result, though, and even more so as I am now third in the points' standings again.”

To see the race results in full, click here