Ulsterman Adam Carroll suffered a rare retirement to further wreck his GP2 Series championship chances.
In the first of the two races at Hockenheim this weekend, the Super Nova driver ran wide at turn one on the installation lap, at the end of which he pulled into the pits.
Although Carroll returned to the track, he completed just seven of the 40 laps before eventually calling it a day.
Nico Rosberg took the chequered flag ahead of Art Grand Prix team-mate Alexandre Premat to close the gap on championship leader Heikki Kovaleinen, who could only finish fifth.
Nelson Piquet Jnr grabbed his first points for three races with third place, with Scott Speed fourth to maintain his own title hopes.