Cloud's first D0 race for Aston Martin ended much like his last one for Mercedes: with a win. Singapore put 19 cars on the grid, six more than the Season 7 finale, but the reigning champion still provided the familiar answer at the front.
He came from fifth to win by 4.025 seconds over Adrian Andrasov, set the fastest lap and collected 31 points. Piastrigoat finished another 0.279 seconds behind Adrian in third. After winning in McLaren and Mercedes colours, Cloud now has an Aston Martin victory as his sweet 16th.
The starting grid had offered a different order. Demaiko put Williams on pole with a 1:27.534, Sammy was 0.046 seconds behind in the Ferrari, and Cloud's lap was only the fifth quickest. Neither front-row driver finished in the top six. Cloud's rivals had the qualifying advantage; he left with the race and the championship lead.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Grid | Gap | Race points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloud | Aston Martin | 5 | — | 31 |
| 2 | Adrian Andrasov | Cadillac | 3 | +4.025s | 23 |
| 3 | piastrigoat | Ferrari | 6 | +4.304s | 19 |
| 4 | mjonr22 | Mercedes | 12 | +5.899s | 15 |
| 5 | Zopz | Williams | 4 | +8.279s | 13 |
| 6 | Zyrøz | Alpine | 17 | +8.417s | 11 |
Mjonr22 gives Mercedes an unexpected top four
Mjon had already finished eighth in D1 earlier in the day. Moving into the faster field produced a better result: fourth from 12th, ahead of Zopz, Sammy and Raptorr.
This was an L1 driver reaching the top four of D0, only 1.595 seconds behind piastrigoat's podium. Mercedes' other car, driven by OfflineKids, retired, so mjon supplied the team's entire D0 score.
His response was to ask whether anybody had backed him for a top five. “yeah didnt think so,” he added. Connor, his Team Principal, was scarcely more restrained: “P4 what the fuck”.
Mjon reported bad lag over the last couple of laps, but came out of the closing exchanges with 15 race points and another five for BOTT. Those are separate rewards: 20 towards the wider team championship, 15 in the D0 drivers' and constructors' tables. For a Mercedes squad assembled late, it was a substantial contribution from a driver whose regular seat is in D1.
Zyrøz made the biggest recovery, gaining 11 places from 17th to sixth without setting a qualifying time due to joining the lobby late. Alpine's 11-point return came entirely from him. The group from Zopz in fifth to Forestal in ninth finished within 0.782 seconds; Singapore kept several very different evenings close together at the flag.
Sammy's front-row pace becomes a comedy of errors
Sammy's qualifying lap put Ferrari within touching distance of pole. Seventh was an expensive conversion of that speed, and the post-race conversation explained why several rivals were unhappy with more than his result.
He admitted hitting Karl Verghese, who said he had been set for a good restart. In a separate exchange with Maco, Sammy accepted that his move had been a divebomb and invited him to report it. Karl finished 13th and Maco 11th; both left without the result their starting positions had offered.
Sammy apologised and said lag had made judging the cars difficult. Mjon also reported late-race lag, while Maco described cars ghosting into one another from his viewpoint. That was the setting for the contact, although Sammy's own assessment needed little translation: “not my finest work”.
The other Williams had an even steeper fall. Demaiko finished 17th, two laps down, leaving a solitary pole point after starting at the front. Zopz's fifth gave Williams 14 constructors' points, well short of the opening return their grid positions had promised. The defending BOTT champions now have some soul searching to do if they want to defend their title.
Higosh's D0 debut also came with damage, which he said had been there since lap one. The Season 7 D4 champion finished 15th from 18th. “well at least i finished” was about as much satisfaction as he could extract from his first encounter with the top division. 5 BOTT points is a net positive for the eclectic Audi team.
VCARB score through a very different pairing
Our dark-horses preview had asked whether Techubi could turn his old winning pedigree into a stronger D0 run for VCARB. He did not start this race. Walter and Forestal instead gave the team eighth and ninth, recovering five and seven places respectively.
Forestal was doing it as an L2 driver. Charlotte, another L2 entrant, described battling him and JT before finishing 12th, and explained that D0 was the only division she could reliably attend. The lower-licence runners had their own contest within the race, with Forestal earning five race points and five more for BOTT. VCARB's two finishers produced 22 BOTT points after the team had lost both D1 cars.
Aston Martin leave with the D0 constructors' lead on 34, as expected, but Ferrari are only six behind on 28. Adrian's second put Cadillac third with 23. Raptorr's tenth contributed just three of Aston's points, leaving the opening victory much more convincing than the combined team result.
We backed Aston Martin's pairing before the season. Singapore has already confirmed how difficult Cloud will be to beat. Raptorr's next task is to make sure Aston's lead doesn't depend on Cloud winning every time.
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