Front row starters Alex Lynn and Rio Haryanto did enough to hold their spots in turn one.

They were followed by Jordan King and Alexander Rossi but behind them Raffaele Marciello and Pierre Gasly touched, at the second corner causing Gasly to spin and Norman Nato unable to avoid him collecting Sean Gelael, Daniël de Jong, Nicholas Latifi and Artem Markelov, while Arthur Pic tried to avoid melee and hit Sergey Sirotkin.

The race was stopped with a red flag immediately as the marshals tried to remove the four cars embedded in the techpro barrier.

Under the supervision of Formula One race director Charlie Whiting the cars were removed and repairs began taking place.

Whiting however, who was taking photos of the damage at the scene, ultimately made the decision to cancel the race after just one lap, with the F1 drivers' parade less than half an hour away.