Evans led away while team-mate Lewis Williamson drove a blistering opening lap, coming from eighth to tuck in behind Evans.
The two of them were controlling the race from the front and Evans looked to become the only driver to win two GP3 races so far in the season.
After five laps Evans was slapped with a 10-second drive-through penalty because his car did not have its wheels fitted when the three-minute board was shown before the start. He pitted on the eighth of 15 laps and dropped to 24th.
Evans made a late switch to wet tyres, but was already too far back for the gamble to pay dividends and crossed the line 21st.
As a result of him missing out on any points and Williamson finishing second, the two MW Arden drivers were second equal in the championship heading into Sunday's race. "I was on the pace pretty quickly in first free practice and happy to end up fifth," said Evans.
"Things weren't quite so smooth in the second session and it was obvious there was still work to do, in terms of both my driving and the car set-up.
"We made some positive changes for qualifying and things felt good straight away. My first run was pretty encouraging, although my lap time didn't reflect as much because I made a mistake at the penultimate corner.
"Everything came together on the second set of tyres, though, and I managed a good, hard, clean lap to take pole. That was a bit of a relief because I left it quite late.
"I was really looking forward to the race and was pleased to make a good start. I had a reasonable lead at the end of the opening lap and could see that Lewis was behind me. There wasn't much between us in terms of pace, so I just concentrated on keeping the car on the track. Everything seemed to be going very well until I was told about the stop-go penalty. It's just one of those things, but obviously it ruined my race."
Sunday dawned wet for race two and the chance of Evans getting any points was quite remote as they only pay out down to ninth.
When the lights went out, Evans floored it and by the time the cars were at the end of lap one Evans had rocketed from 19th on the grid up to 12th.
His father Owen said: "I said to the crew that if Mitch wasn't gaining positions in the first few laps of the race, then bring him in and make some set-up changes to see if we can get a better wet set-up. My theory is that if points cannot be gained then use the wet race as a test session to see if we can get any improvements that could help us at another round in the wet; that way the race is not wasted."
On the following lap, however, another driver punted into Evans, causing a puncture, so he had to pit and change a wheel causing him to finish 22nd.
"I made a good start from 19th and was up 12th by Turn Four, but at the start of the second lap I was hit from the side," said Evans.
"That left me with a front puncture and I had to crawl back to the pits to change wheels.
"I've been quicker than my results suggest, so I'll just put it down to experience and move on."
He is still second in the championship. If Evans' previous handling of misfortune is anything to go on, he'll bounce back stronger and more determined than ever.
The team has booked a simulator in the run up to this weekend's race to get Evans up to speed for the race around the Hungaroring circuit just outside Budapest.
With the support of his team Evans will do just fine. He can more than mix it with the leading drivers on circuits he's never seen before.
