Marco Butti missed out on turning pole position to victory at Hockenheim, first by a problem at the start in his MM Motorsport-run Honda, and then by a braking issue at Turn 6 which saw him cede two positions to Max Hart and Eric Gené.

The Italian recovered to finish second in the race, but didn’t have the pace to chase down Hart’s Hyundai, and had to settle for second, but picked up key points which put him up to second in the drivers’ standings, despite two DNFs in the first five races of the season.

“At the start, we didn’t launch the car with the launch control, but we saved the situation in Turn 1 fighting with Max,” said Butti.

“After that I had a strange feeling on the brakes today, so maybe it was my mistake, we have to work hard for Race 2 and do our best. In the race, we were fighting like lions, so I’m really happy, but we should have won the race today and that didn’t happen, so we have to work.”