The Safety Car had just been drawn on the opening lap of Race 2 as Aemel Nordin found the gravel at Turn 5.

Race leader Enzo Cheng had already made it back to the control line to start Lap 2 when the yellow flag was thrown just as the Safety Car began to make its way out of the pit lane.

As Cheng and second-placed Antoine Gittany slowed to allow the Safety Car onto the track, Rick Armstrong collided heavily with the rear of Gittany.

Armstrong’s car collided with the inside wall, while Gittany’s machine shot forward and rode up onto the rear of Cheng’s, carrying the pair of them into the inside wall, narrowly missing the saftey car at pit exit.

All drivers appeared to emerge from their destroyed cars under their own power.

The red flag was shown immediately as the cars came to a rest, with a field of debris littering the track surface.

There was a lengthy delay to proceedings as the cars were recovered.

Race leader Enzo Cheng expressed his disappointment at the incident, but confirmed he was alright.

“It’s very disappointing, just glad everyone’s alright,” Cheng said after being released from the medical centre.

“For me, I started the race pretty well, and just came around and I see the safety car.”

“I ended up slowing down and the safety car was halfway out of the pit exit, then I just felt this massive shunt behind me.

“We literally just missed the safety car by maybe like a car length.”

As the track was cleared, race control elected to reset the clock to when the red flag was shown.

The green flag came back out with just under 15 minutes remaining, leaving veteran Jim Pollicina in the lead.

Ernst Kirchmayr had pulled into the pit lane when the red flag was thrown, while the rest of the field stayed on the circuit behind the safety car.

The Austrian set about a recovery drive, making it back to sixth position from 11th on the restart.

Damian Hamilton forced Kirchmayr into the grass on the entry to Turn 4, sending the Austrian into a slide, collecting an innocent David Trewern.

The incident drew the second and final saftey car of the race.

When the race restarted, Pollicina held onto the lead, taking the race win from Masahiro Taguchi and Adnan Sibai.