Evans flies from 15th to victory

Evans, who struggled through practice and qualifying with front rollbar issues, elected to roll the dice by starting on the soft tyre. This gave him an early opportunity to carve his way past those ahead who started on the medium rubber.

Already up to 11th after the opening lap, he had a lucky escape when a clash with Alexander Rossi at the Spitzkehre hairpin left his car undamaged while Rossi's steering was broken. By lap five, Evans was up to ninth.

Evans then passed Stephane Richelmi, who also started on the softer tyre, and Johnny Cecotto Jr on successive laps, but crucially stayed out until lap 14 to make his mandatory pitstop - giving him a sensible stint of 24 laps on the medium tyre.

Others who started ahead of him on the soft tyre, Arthur Pic and Raffaele Marciello, were running fifth and sixth when they pitted earlier - but both of them stalled, apparently due to overheating engines. This gained Evans another two places.

Now on fresh medium rubber, Evans had to work his way through the traffic of slower cars that had started on the mediums - and also had to repass Richelmi, who had undercut him. Sergio Canamasas in particular almost ruined his cunning strategy by being obstinate.

At the front, meanwhile, ART's Stoffel Vandoorne had outdragged poleman Jolyon Palmer's DAMS car off the startline to lead the opening 25 laps. But as he rejoined from his pitstop, Evans swept past Vandoorne into the lead.

Amazingly, Vandoorne didn't realise he had to pass Evans, assuming the Russian Time car still had to stop. After dropping back by 1.5s, Vandoorne caught up again, but the advantage of the fresh soft rubber had effectively been wasted when he'd needed to strike.

The McLaren Formula 1 test driver tracked Evans to the finish, but couldn't get close enough to try a pass and finished second by 0.4s.

Palmer finished third, while a frantic scrap for fourth was won by Stefano Coletti after a crazy duel with Felipe Nasr and Johnny Cecotto Jr that was only decided in the closing laps.

Nathanael Berthon will start Sunday's reversed-grid sprint race from pole after finishing eighth.