Rizla won Spain with a Williams close behind and another arriving more than a second quicker on the final lap. Webbah's worn tyres left him short of a way past, while HPJones's late charge ran out of race. Less than half a second covered all three at the flag.
The Aston Martin beat Webbah by 0.432 seconds, with HP another 0.063 behind. For Rizla, second in Singapore, it was a third IMS victory and his first since winning from twelfth in Abu Dhabi last season. This one put him ahead in the D1 championship and Aston ahead among the constructors.
| Pos | +/− | Team | Driver | Grid | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 2 | Aston Martin | RizlaAston MartinGrid 32 | 3 | 42:42.707 | 30 |
| P2 | 0 | Williams | Webbah87WilliamsGrid 20 | 2 | +0.432s | 23 |
| P3 | 2 | Williams | HPJonesWilliamsGrid 12 | 1 | +0.495s | 20 |
| P4 | 0 | Ferrari | xAQxFrFerrariGrid 40 | 4 | +1.850s | 15 |
| P5 | 5 | Mercedes | mjonr22MercedesGrid 105 | 10 | +4.793s | 13 |
| P6 | 1 | Aston Martin | UKTUSAston MartinGrid 51 | 5 | +5.362s | 11 |
| P7 | 1 | Audi | alexuk6420AudiGrid 61 | 6 | +7.917s | 9 |
| P8 | 1 | Cadillac | Darth UsshCadillacGrid 71 | 7 | +9.127s | 7 |
Rizla breaks up the Williams front row
Webbah had wanted to spare himself another Singapore recovery. Starting thirteenth there had left him working for every place on the way to third; in the Williams preview, he made qualifying near the front his priority. Spain delivered second, just 0.025 seconds behind HP's pole-winning 1:12.512.
Rizla undid part of that advantage immediately. He was ahead of Webbah by the opening sector, with only HP in front. The Williams pair then took different routes through the race: Webbah joined Rizla in making one change from Mediums to Hards, while HP stopped twice. Their pit cycles exchanged the lead, but HP's second visit left him with ground to recover and fresher Hards to do it on.
Webbah could stay with the Aston but had little left to attack it with. Rizla reported 70% wear with two laps left. Webbah began the final lap at 81%, then stopped looking “out of fear”. He credited Rizla afterwards:
Ggs mate great tyre management, I had nothing left to fight with at the end
— Webbah87HP takes third on the last lap
HP still had speed to use. He was quicker than both leaders on every one of the final eleven laps, recovering 13.9 seconds against Rizla through lap time alone. He got ahead of Ussh on lap 28 and closed on a podium fight that was already changing in front of him.
Erion was still third at the end of lap 29. xAQ moved past him on lap 30, and HP was ahead of the slowing McLaren by the end of the next lap. The Ferrari was the last car between HP and his team-mate, but it reached the final lap still in third.
HP took that place before the second sector was complete and almost added Webbah's second place at the line. xAQ, racing without ABS for the first time, had little left with which to respond:
Yeah my tyres were cooked, once you got me I was just going slow to make sure no puncture
— xAQxFrFourth left the Ferrari only 1.850 seconds from victory. HP had recovered a podium after his equipment-hit retirement in Singapore, but he was still looking back at the part of the race that had made the finish so difficult. “2nd stint killed it for me,” he said. He had been told to save his tyres and was finding the limit on his first day without traction control.
HP's eleven-lap charge
HP's gap to race leader Rizla at the end of each lap, closing from 13.329 seconds after lap 23 to 0.495 at the finish. Smaller bars mean a smaller gap. Lap-end gaps reconstructed from Runback timing.
Erion's podium run ends in eighteenth
Erion had got ahead of xAQ on lap 17 and remained in contention for a much better result than the one he eventually took home. Eighteenth brought no points for that earlier work. He reported punctures on both Mediums and Hards, then said a game bug had left a Medium fitted alongside his Hard tyres. With Marco twelfth, McLaren took just one point from Spain.
Alex also had tyre trouble to explain. He described a slow puncture, while Ussh challenged how slowly the Audi had remained on the racing line. Alex eventually got ahead of the Cadillac on the final lap to finish seventh, leaving Ussh eighth.
mjon makes Mercedes' one car count
mjon's climb from tenth to fifth took more than waiting for other cars to stop. He got ahead of UKTUS on lap 16, lost the place again a lap later and retook it on lap 26, after both had made their final stops. When they reached Ussh on lap 31, the Mercedes got through first and UKTUS followed.
The Aston finished 0.569 seconds behind him. UKTUS complained of understeer but thanked mjon for the train. mjon attached a condition:
hey anytime as long as you dont pass me 😁
— mjonr22Fifth brought Mercedes thirteen points from its sole D1 car. Yet mjon thought poor qualifying had compromised his start and that his two-stop race could have been better. Eighth in Singapore and fifth here have put him on twenty points, level with HP.
Aston take both leads
Cadillac could not match that return with two cars. Poly finished tenth, ending his run of four consecutive D1 wins, and Ussh's eighth left the team with ten points. Williams scored forty-three and Aston forty-one, overturning Cadillac's lead.
Rizla now has 53 points to Webbah's 42 and Poly's 33. The constructors are closer: Aston lead Williams 64–62, with Cadillac on 51. Williams have answered the questions about qualifying and getting both cars home. They now need one of them to finish ahead of Rizla.
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