Wadz51 finished second in the D1 leg of Season 1's first Mystery Race, climbing three positions from fifth on the grid. The result was his first IMS podium.
Jakebandy8 won from P2 for McLaren, while pole-sitter TheMekanic17 completed the podium in third. Wadz therefore split the race winner from the championship leader without needing either distinction for himself.
Eighteen points underpin Mercedes' second place
Mercedes scored 36 BOTT points across four starts and ranked second for the round, 16 behind McLaren and 11 ahead of Alpine. Wadz's 18 points supplied exactly half of that total.
The team return was broad enough to include two top-five finishes, but only Wadz reached the podium. His breakthrough was therefore both a personal first and Mercedes' countback anchor for the weekend.
TheMekanic keeps an 18-point buffer
TheMekanic's third place maintained the D1 lead on 58 points, with Jake second on 40 after his victory. Wadz's arrival did not redraw the top two, but it widened the set of drivers already capable of reaching the front three.
Las Vegas came next. Wadz went there with no borrowed superlative, just the useful currency of a first podium earned from the third row and a Mercedes score that mattered immediately.
