One missed race has done nothing to interrupt TheMDog's D3 run.
Back after sitting out Monza, the Ferrari driver took pole, fastest lap and victory at Abu Dhabi, finishing 15.959 seconds clear of xBlackSkull47. It was his fourth win in as many D3 starts and his fifth IMS victory overall.
Champion Quenooo completed the podium, another 10.016 seconds behind BlackSkull. Trident came through from eighth to finish fourth, just 1.825 seconds ahead of Williams team-mate Online in fifth.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Grid | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | TheMDog | Ferrari | 1 | Winner |
| P2 | xBlackSkull47 | Haas | 2 | +15.959 |
| P3 | Quenooo | Aston Martin | 4 | +25.975 |
| P4 | Trident65 | Williams | 8 | +35.966 |
| P5 | OnlineGuy99 | Williams | 6 | +37.791 |
| P6 | ximqf | Cadillac | 5 | +43.025 |
| P7 | Zac | Aston Martin | 7 | +55.530 |
| P8 | Jacko | VCARB | 11 | +62.300 |
| P9 | J_Cøi33 | Audi | 12 | +63.156 |
| P10 | Opts Tryhard | Haas | 16 | +65.534 |
A return that looked like a continuation
The sequence began in Qatar, where TheMDog won from third. He followed it with victory from second in Baku and from pole in Japan. Monza went ahead without him; Abu Dhabi brought him back to the same place at the front.
This was the most complete points return of the four. His 1:22.778 secured pole, his 1:25.127 took fastest lap, and first place completed a 32-point afternoon. The total lifted him from fifth to third in the drivers' standings, ahead of Trident and the absent kelloggsrule.
| D3 start | Grid | Finish | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qatar | 3 | 1 | 31 |
| Baku | 2 | 1 | 30 |
| Japan | 1 | 1 | 31 |
| Abu Dhabi | 1 | 1 | 32 |
TheMDog has collected 124 points from those four starts. The contrast is sharp: his other two D3 races ended seventh in Las Vegas and 14th at Spa.
Williams clinch without extending their lead
Ferrari had the winner. Williams had both cars in the top five, and that was enough to settle the constructors' championship.
Trident's fourth and Online's fifth brought Williams 28 points. Quenooo's third and Zac's seventh produced the same total for Aston Martin, leaving the gap exactly where it began: 57 points.
Brazil offers a maximum of 55 to one team. Williams are therefore D3 constructors' champions with a round to spare.
| Team | Before Abu Dhabi | Race score | After Abu Dhabi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Williams | 289 | 28 | 317 |
| Aston Martin | 232 | 28 | 260 |
The season has rewarded Williams' depth. The team has two D3 victories to Ferrari's four, but 317 points to Ferrari's 192. Every Ferrari win belongs to TheMDog; Williams have kept scoring through Online, Trident and JDJT even when the winner has worn another colour.
BlackSkull turns five starts into a second runner-up finish
BlackSkull's fifth IMS start delivered his second podium, both of them second places in D3. He qualified alongside TheMDog on the front row and finished more than ten seconds clear of the champion in third.
The two leaders did not come through the race without contact. BlackSkull apologised afterwards for a collision during what he called “a good battle at first”. TheMDog accepted it, saying both were on “dead tires” and had done what they could through the corner.
Their review of the result was much shorter. “yo the gap we got holy,” wrote TheMDog. “Oh yeah we made quite the gap,” BlackSkull replied.
Jacko turns damage into the Jacko train
The race behind them was rather less orderly. Jacko said a broken wing had left him holding up “half the field for 11 laps”, then wondered whether the stream had caught the “Jacko train”. His own verdict—“I was in full Trulli mode”—was hard to improve upon.
He still moved from 11th to eighth. Opts Tryhard made the largest climb in the result, gaining six places to finish tenth, while J_Cøi added three places for ninth. At the other end of the afternoon, ELITE HEAT SHOW fell from third on the grid to 16th, one lap down, and Poulparindo4256 and PCPADDLEBOY did not finish.
Carlos Velez, 13th for Alpine, left one of the more revealing assessments of the field: “The level of this division has improved a lot, I no longer reach them, they are very fast, or I became slow, I don’t know.”
That answer can wait. Brazil first has a remarkably close fight behind the champion. Online holds second on 147 points, with TheMDog on 133, Trident on 128 and kelloggsrule on 125. Twenty-two points cover all four.
TheMDog arrives only 14 short of Online, carrying four wins from his last four D3 starts. The title has gone. Second place—and one final chance for the rest of D3 to break his sequence—has not.
