The local man lost his pole advantage away from the line when he was passed by Mika Maki, but recovered the position when Maki overshot Turn 1, the Grundigkehre, on the opening lap.
Maki's error only cost the Finn one position, but at the S-Kurve chicane he was assaulted by an over-ambitious Jules Bianchi. Maki was launched into a heavy impact with the concrete retaining wall on the exit of the corner, and both men retired.
Bianchi's ART teammate James Jakes had already had his hopes sabotaged by a nudge into a spin from sixth starter Jean Karl Vernay at the hairpin.
Koudai Tuskakoshi inherited second position, and the Honda protege maintained the place until the end of the race. Tsukakoshi traded fastest laps with Hulkenberg at mid-distance, but was always on the back-foot having been delayed by the Maki/Bianchi shunt.
"I pushed to create a five second margin over Koudai," said Hulkenberg. "With that gap it meant I could overtake the slower cars slowly and keep cool.
"At this track you don't have to worry about dirty air from the car in front making passing difficult, so I think tomorrow, as long as my car remains good under braking, I should be able to pass a lot of cars."
Hulkenberg's win moves him ahead of Maki in the standings, 13 points behind Mortara.
Vernay drafted passed Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez for third, and the final place on the podium, into Grundigkehre on lap 11.
"It was crazy in the early laps," said Vernay. "I'm sorry about hitting Jakes, but Maki had overshot and Gonzalez cut the hairpin so there was no way I could avoid it."
Gonzalez had held a group of four cars at bay in a strong showing in the opening laps. The scrap involved a spectacular, opposite locking, Dani Clos.
Clos managed to draw along Gonzalez's outside into turn one on lap 12, but Gonzalez's braking was compromised on the rarely-used, dark, tarmac on the inside. Locked up and struggling to regain control, Gonzalez missed the apex by a considerable margin, forcing both drivers straight on into the escape road.
The incident promoted Edoardo Mortara into fourth from Englishman Jon Lancaster, who belied his rookie status to cling on to the gearbox of the championship leader for the duration of the race's 48 laps, finishing one second adrift at the chequered flag.
Clos had recovered back up to sixth when he was forced to pit on lap 24, having receiving a black and orange flag, to have an unstable front wing on his Prema car attended to.
The incidents helped promote Christian Vietoris up the order from his 27th place starting position to sixth place at the finish.
The result went some way to recompensing Mucke Motorsport for the disappointment of championship challenger Maki's retirement. Mucke can also look forward to Czech Erik Janis' pole position for the reverse grid race on Sunday.
Pos Driver Team Car Time 1. Nico Hulkenberg ART D/M 39:41.600 2. Koudai Tsukakoshi Manor D/M +6.651 3. Jean-Karl Vernay Signature D/V +17.875 4. Edoardo Mortara Signature D/V +18.394 5. Jon Lancaster ART D/M +19.324 6. Christian Vietoris Mucke D/M +28.077 7. Robert Wickens Signature D/V +28.834 8. Erik Janis Mucke D/M +29.605 9. Henkie Waldschmidt SG D/M +32.769 10. Renger van der Zande Prema D/M +34.826 11. Stefano Coletti Prema D/M +43.554 12. Rodolfo Gonzalez Carlin D/M +44.366 13. Kazuya Oshima Manor D/M +46.387 14. Sam Bird Manor D/M +51.230 15. Jens Klingmann RC D/V +1 lap 16. Cheng Cong Fu RC D/V +1 lap 17. Daniel Campos-Hull HBR D/M +1 lap 18. Franck Mailleux Signature D/V +1 lap 19. Michael Klein Jo Zeller D/M +1 lap 20. Basil Shaaban HBR D/M +1 lap 21. Dani Clos Prema D/M +2 laps 22. Richard Philippe Carlin D/M +3 laps Retirements: Pos Driver Team Car Laps Martin Plowman RC D/V 40 laps Niall Breen Manor D/M 39 laps James Jakes ART D/M 39 laps Maxi Gotz RC D/V 1 lap Jules Bianchi ART D/M 0 laps Mika Maki Mucke D/M 0 laps Yann Clairay SG D/M 0 laps Fastest lap, Hulkenberg 48.902
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