The European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring will be talked about for years as one of the most bizarre races in Formula One history when a sudden downpour just after the start turned the world’s most technically advanced sport into chaos.

Even as the 22 drivers sat on the grid, we knew that the rain was coming – you could see it in the dark clouds over the hills around the track – but all the drivers bar the man at the back, Markus Winkelhock, of Germany, who started his first race in Formula One from the pitlane, were on dry weather tyres.

The cars roared away and almost immediately it started spitting, then raining and within minutes the heavens had opened.

Everyone was coming in for intermediate tyres, save for Winkelhock for Spyker, the habitual Formula One no-hopers. He had been called up only a week ago after Christijan Albers, the Dutchman, was dismissed. Having completed only 2½ hours of practice before the race weekend, Winkelhock found himself with a 20-second lead and driving a Formula One car for the first time in the rain in his first race.

Behind him all hell broke loose as standing water built up at turn one. The first to go off was Jenson Button, the Briton, who saw his race run as his Honda smashed into the tyre wall. Then came Adrian Sutil, Winkelhock’s teammate, who did a graceful pirouette on the track before sliding into the gravel backwards. Then it was Lewis Hamilton’s turn.

The British rookie had started in tenth place and got as far up as fourth, only to pick up a puncture. Hamilton went in for new tyres but then joined the party at turn one as his car went straight on out of control into the gravel. Hamilton was helped back on to the track by crane – which is allowed in the rules because he was in a dangerous position – and he was able to make the restart.

Others who aquaplaned to calamity included Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso, who went airborne before slamming into the gravel, and Scott Speed, his teammate. By then the grand prix had been stopped and there was a 30-minute delay before 17 cars restarted, led by the stunned Winkelhock.

It turned out that his inspired decision to swap his tyres after the formation lap and start from the pitlane came after a mechanic and friend of his had phoned from his home near the circuit to tell the team that it was raining at his house and the wet stuff would be at the circuit soon.

Winkelhock, whose family has a long pedigree in motor racing, eventually retired on lap 18 with hydraulic failure. “Starting on wet tyres was a really fantastic decision and that’s why I was leading my first Formula One race,” he said. “To lead a Formula One race is something nobody can take away from you – you have it for your whole life.”