Beitske Visser once again struggled to get away from the line and dropped into the midfield, whereas Miki Koyama remained stuck on the grid for a lengthy period with gearbox issues that had been persistent through practice and qualifying.

This brought out the safety car, which proved Wohlwend's undoing as she had been gapping Powell but destroyed her tyres in the process.

On lap 12, Wohlwend ran wide at Vale, allowing Powell to get the undercut at Club and muscle past for the lead.

Hawkins received a 20 second time penalty for the incident, making her the only British driver not to score points.

Visser recovered to sixth and Abbi Pulling scored points on her début with eighth.