Mick Schumacher led a Prema Racing one-two as he beat polesitter Robert Shwartzman in the first race of the European Formula 3 weekend at the Nurburgring.

Schumacher seized the lead at the start, squeezing passed Shwartzman on the run towards the tight Turn 1 hairpin.

While Shwartzman posed a constant threat throughout the race, Schumacher was able to control the lead to eventually win by 0.837 seconds.

The win has propelled him from fourth in the championship up to second, as both Juri Vips and Marcus Armstrong slipped back.

Vips was tangled up in a Turn 1 crash on the opening lap. After starting ninth on the grid, Jehan Daruvala locked up into the first corner, tagging Alex Palou who then collected Vips in a chain-reaction accident involving a total of six cars.

Vips initially managed to drive away from the incident but returned to the pits to retire at the end of the lap. The safety car was deployed to recover Daruvala, Palou and Marino Sato’s cars which were stranded at Turn 1.

Armstrong ended up finishing the race in sixth place. He started from the rear of the field after a post-qualifying engine change following issues on Friday.

The championship protagonist made up 11 positions in one corner after scything his way through the Turn 1 chaos, to reach seventh place. He was promoted to sixth when Artem Petrov was handed a drivethrough penalty for a jump start.

Both Vips and Armstrong lost significant ground on the championship leader Daniel Ticktum, as the Red Bull Formula 1 junior extended his points lead with a third-place finish.

Ticktum lost third place to Ralf Aron on the opening lap. However, he moved passed the Prema driver around the outside Turn 1 later on and was followed through by his compatriot Enaam Ahmed.

Ahmed was able to pull away and consolidate fourth place. Aron had to settle for fifth.

Guan Yu Zhou was able to make up two places at the safety car restart, vaulting from 10th to eighth. Following Petrov’s penalty, he ended the race in seventh ensuring that four Prema’s ended up in the top seven.