Missing Spain has not stopped Tom taking the D2 lead. He returned in Texas, won from sixth and left one point ahead of Jhazztan, whose sixth place could not protect the championship advantage. Two appearances have brought the Ferrari driver two wins, overturning the nineteen-point deficit he carried into the round.
Martim finished 6.289 seconds behind him, with new Aston team-mate six another 0.356 back after starting sixteenth. Their double podium overturned Williams' fourteen-point constructors' lead, putting Aston two ahead. Tom took the individual prize, but the two green cars behind him changed the team contest.
The afternoon had initially looked Tedhead's to shape. His 1:31.521 put McLaren on pole by 0.327 seconds over Lord DabFoot. Four to five hours of practice had produced a lap nobody else could match. Contact at the first corner, a disconnect and a throttle problem then reduced that advantage to a single pole point.
Pole unravels before the race can reward it
Tedhead reported being hit at Turn 1 and losing three places. His incident report named DabFoot, Martim and pwjones but did not settle who had started the contact; DabFoot said he had been hit at the right rear and sandwiched in the collision. The polesitter's problems did not end with the opening corner.
He said he disconnected from fifth, could not get back into the car from lap four until lap twelve, and then found the throttle registering at one hundred per cent. Restarting his PC and getting another invitation had not recovered a usable car.
Can't believe i got myself up at 7 on a Sunday just for all that to happen
— TedheadHe was classified nineteenth and retired. New McLaren team-mate Hacko finished ninth, taking five points on his first race in the regular seat. The pairing introduced in the Texas preview had shown front-running qualifying speed through Tedhead, but only one car reached the finish.
Aston's new pairing takes the places Williams needed
Martim had his own damage to carry. After finishing second, he told Team Principal Quenooo that he had been racing with nineteen per cent wing damage, adding that he had kept it quiet to avoid worrying him. He also reported having two track-limits warnings since lap three. Getting the Aston home without another warning was part of preserving the result.
Beside him, six turned sixteenth on the grid into a podium on his IMS debut. Martim's response was “MY GOAT”. With rbn absent, Aston's new arrival had supplied nineteen points immediately.
That supporting score decided the constructors' reversal. Martim's twenty-three and six's nineteen gave Aston forty-two, against twenty-six for Williams. Pwjones finished fourth, 1.021 seconds behind six, while DabFoot separated him from Jhazztan in sixth. After Spain's one-two, neither Williams reached the podium in Texas.
Pwjones's first win remains out of reach, and this time the obstacle was more basic than a team-mate arriving on the final lap. “I just can't stop the car at that track without a lockup unless I brake so early” was his assessment. Fourth still supplied fifteen points, but the fight just ahead had offered more.
Three seconds rearrange the chasing pack
Kyotonic and Pooldiver both came away measuring what track limits had cost them. Kyo's verdict was “3s from podium to 8th”; Pooldiver believed he had lost second. With Martim, six and pwjones separated by only 1.377 seconds in the result, neither complaint needed much imagination to explain the frustration.
Their race had also supplied some less bitter exchanges. Kyo joked about watching a synchronised rear lock-up in his mirrors, while Pooldiver admitted there had been a mixture of hanging on and holding the cars behind him up during their Hard stint. Pooldiver finished tenth, just 0.220 seconds behind Hacko.
JDJT was one beneficiary of the penalties, climbing from eighteenth to seventh for Audi. “w race thank u guys with pens helped me get p7”, he wrote. He finished less than half a second behind Jhazztan, while Kyo, Hacko and Pooldiver followed within another 1.670 seconds. Behind the winner, a crowded finish had made a three-second penalty expensive.
| Pos | +/− | Team | Driver | Grid | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 5 | Ferrari | Kartingtom141FerrariGrid 65 | 6 | 47:35.354 | 31 |
| P2 | 1 | Aston Martin | MartimSilvaAston MartinGrid 31 | 3 | +6.289s | 23 |
| P3 | 13 | Aston Martin | sixAston MartinGrid 1613 | 16 | +6.645s | 19 |
| P4 | 0 | Williams | pwjonesWilliamsGrid 40 | 4 | +7.666s | 15 |
| P5 | 3 | Cadillac | Lord DabFootCadillacGrid 23 | 2 | +7.852s | 13 |
| P6 | 2 | Williams | jhazztanWilliamsGrid 82 | 8 | +8.208s | 11 |
| P7 | 11 | Audi | JDJT3593AudiGrid 1811 | 18 | +8.630s | 9 |
| P8 | 3 | Ferrari | kyotonicFerrariGrid 53 | 5 | +9.025s | 7 |
| P9 | 2 | McLaren | HackoDKMcLarenGrid 72 | 7 | +10.080s | 5 |
| P10 | 1 | Mercedes | Pooldiver46MercedesGrid 111 | 11 | +10.300s | 3 |
| P11 | 3 | Mercedes | HillyMercedesGrid 143 | 14 | +14.611s | 2 |
| P12 | 2 | Cadillac | SwithCadillacGrid 102 | 10 | +14.841s | 1 |
| P19 | 18 | McLaren | TedheadMcLarenGrid 118 | 1 | DNF | 1 |
Tom leads Jhazztan 61–60, with Martim moving to third on forty-two. Aston have 100 constructors' points to Williams' 98 and Ferrari's 78. Kyo's seven alongside Tom's thirty-one have kept Ferrari in the team fight as well as returning its winner to the top of the drivers' table.
Jhazztan has scored at all three rounds. Tom has already missed one and still moved ahead. The Williams now needs an answer to a driver who has won every D2 race he has entered this season.
