Abu Dhabi kept resetting itself until the driver who started 12th won it and the driver who finished seventh made IMS history.
Rizla beat HPJones by 0.223 seconds after a race which featured three Safety Cars and two Virtual Safety Cars. Sintium completed the podium from eighth, while John Marco climbed from 18th to fourth and polesitter MacoDelVolante fell to fifth.
Behind them, Darth Ussh's second-place start became seventh at the flag. For the fourth round in a row, he scored exactly nine points: eighth in Baku, then seventh in Japan, Monza and Abu Dhabi. This time, those familiar nine took him to 189 and put HPJones 48 behind with only 32 available in Brazil. Ussh is the Season 7 D1 champion — and the first driver in IMS history to win three WDCs.
| Pos. | Driver | Grid | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rizla | 12th | — | 30 |
| 2 | HPJones | 13th | +0.223s | 23 |
| 3 | Sintium | 8th | +5.275s | 19 |
| 4 | John Marco | 18th | +5.889s | 15 |
| 5 | MacoDelVolante | 1st | +6.017s | 14 |
| 6 | Rickk116 | 14th | +7.788s | 11 |
| 7 | Darth Ussh | 2nd | +7.931s | 9 |
| 8 | jhazztan | 17th | +8.234s | 7 |
Five neutralisations turn the order inside out
They say safety cars breed safety cars, and that was true tonight. The leading positions bore little resemblance to qualifying. Rizla and HPJones each gained 11 places; John Marco went three better with the largest recovery of the race. MacoDelVolante was the only top-five finisher to have started inside the top seven.
Rizla did not pretend the interruptions were incidental. Asked how much they had helped his medium tyres, he replied: “10 😂 without a safety car i had no chance lol”. It was a candid summary of a race in which repeated bunching kept reopening possibilities that the original order appeared to have closed.
The win was Rizla's second in IMS and his first since Spain in Season 6. His Season 7 had already included back-to-back podiums at Las Vegas and Spa, but Abu Dhabi ended a five-round stretch without another top-three finish and lifted him to fifth in the D1 standings on 105 points.
HPJones was similarly understated about climbing from 13th to second, describing the result afterwards as having been handed to him. The classification still leaves him with 23 points and the best position in the fight to finish runner-up. Sintium's rise from eighth, meanwhile, delivered his first D1 podium after he had spent the pre-race chat trying to make sense of a new monitor and declaring that he was “Driving a chungus icl”. The setup looked unusual; the result was his best in D1.
Four rounds, four nine-point returns — and a title
Before the race, Ussh joked that he needed something like 10th. Seventh did the job with room to spare and extended the season's strangest streak. Baku had brought eighth and nine points; Japan and Monza each brought seventh and nine. Abu Dhabi completed a fourth consecutive nine-point return.
The title was built during a six-race run from Austria to Qatar in which he never left the podium. He finished third in Austria, won at Silverstone, Las Vegas and Spa, took another third in Australia and finished second in Qatar. That sequence created enough separation to withstand a four-race run of nine points each.
Abu Dhabi moves Ussh 48 points clear of HPJones. Even a maximum 32 for the Williams driver in Brazil cannot close it. The new crown joins Ussh's Season 2 and Season 4 E1 championships, both won with Ferrari; Season 7 adds a D1 title in Cadillac colours and takes him clear of every other IMS driver on three WDCs.
Ussh moves clear of IMS's two-time champions
WDC totals through Season 7 D1 Abu Dhabi
Williams leaves with the other D1 trophy
HPJones's second place also completed the arithmetic for Williams. The team now leads Cadillac 305-221 in the constructors' standings, an 84-point advantage with a maximum of 55 available in Brazil.
Webbah87 finished 16th after starting fourth, so this was hardly a clean two-car title performance. His 1:23.917 was the fastest lap, but the point stayed out of reach with the car outside the scoring positions. HPJones supplied all 23 of Williams' Abu Dhabi points and ensured the season's five wins and deep supporting results could no longer be caught.
It is Williams' second D1 constructors' championship after Season 5. Cadillac have not secured second; Aston Martin and McLaren remain within Brazil's 55-point ceiling. The top step, however, is settled.
John Marco keeps McLaren's recovery story alive
Erion's run of podiums in Baku, Japan and Monza ended with 17th place, but the other McLaren again came through from the wrong end of the grid. John Marco followed 12th to fourth at Monza with 18th to fourth in Abu Dhabi, gaining 22 places across the two races and scoring 30 points.
For four consecutive D1 rounds, at least one McLaren has now started outside the top ten and finished inside the top four. Abu Dhabi was the first of those races in which the second car could not join the recovery, yet Marco's drive still gave the team 15 points and kept McLaren fourth in the constructors' table.
Brazil will therefore stage a D1 finale without either championship on the line. The arguments immediately behind the champions remain open: HPJones leads PolyTromp by 17 and MagMagnussen by 28 for second among the drivers, while Cadillac, Aston Martin and McLaren are separated by 48 points in the race for second among the teams.
Ussh will arrive as IMS's first three-time champion. Rizla will arrive as the latest winner — and the one honest enough to admit that Abu Dhabi had to come apart before it could fall his way.
