Tom and SET Slap each claimed a first IMS podium in Singapore, finishing second and third for McLaren in the opening E1 race of Season 3. Tom advanced from P6 while SET Slap moved forward from P4.
II M4IK II won for VCARB from P5, but McLaren’s combined 45 points established the first E1 constructors’ lead. VCARB left Singapore second on 35, 10 points behind.
McLaren wins the arithmetic without winning the race
The result split the two obvious rewards. II M4IK II owned the victory and the initial drivers’ lead; McLaren owned the greater two-car return because both of its podium finishers scored together.
Tom gained four positions and finished five points behind the winner in the standings. SET Slap’s one-place rise supplied another 20, making a pair of breakthrough results immediately useful to the same team.
A first chapter with two names in it
Opening rounds are usually reduced to the winner. Singapore’s E1 classification resists that shortcut: two drivers reached the IMS podium for the first time, and those separate milestones combined to put McLaren first in the team table.
Nothing after one event was settled, naturally. What Singapore did settle was the opening shape: II M4IK II led the drivers on 30, Tom sat five back, and McLaren had made two new podium finishers worth more than a race win in the constructors’ sum.
