Sirén leads throughout and joins Masse at the top
Kasperi Sirén won the second Championship round from pole position, leading all 40 laps while the fight behind him shaped the podium. He and Florian Masse now share the points lead.
A lead held from the start
Kasperi Sirén gave his rivals no lap on which to take command. Starting from pole in the Formula RSS 1970 V8, he led at the completion of each of the 40 laps and took his first victory of this Championship. He also set the fastest lap, a 1:31.401, just 0.058 seconds quicker than Florian Masse's best. There was little to separate their outright pace, even if Sirén held the race lead throughout.
That distinction mattered in a field of 19 drivers all using the same car. For nine laps early in the race, Sirén, Masse, Drik Crozet and Simone Porcu ran within five seconds of one another. Sirén remained in front of that group, but the places behind him were still to be settled.
The places behind the leader
Crozet and Porcu supplied the closest sustained contest among the leading four. They ran within two seconds of each other for much of the opening phase, with Porcu ahead until Crozet moved in front by the end of lap 11. The pair remained close for several more laps before Crozet secured third place and Porcu took fourth.
Masse, meanwhile, held on to second ahead of Crozet. He had arrived as the Championship leader and as winner of the opening round, and his race here was hardly a surrender of that position. Sirén had the victory and the fastest lap, but Masse completed the full distance in second, with Crozet completing the podium.
Rebessi comes through
Further back, Stefano Robert Rebessi made the most conspicuous advance. From 24th on the starting grid, he was already 18th after the first lap. His progress continued over the full 40-lap distance, and he finished eighth. Six places gained in the opening lap did not account for the whole journey; Rebessi kept moving up as the race developed.
It was an appreciable result in a race whose leading order had offered few openings to Sirén's pursuers. Rebessi's climb provided a different measure of how much position could still be won beyond the front group.
A shared Championship lead
Sirén came to this second round sixth in the Championship and leaves it level with Masse at the head of the table, each on 40 points. The rule that sets aside one result per driver currently leaves Sirén's victory as his scoring result, while Masse's opening-round victory remains his. Thus Masse's second place did not increase his points total, though it kept him alongside the new race winner.
Four of the six rounds remain. Sirén has established himself as a winner and drawn level with the driver who led coming in; Masse has answered a race spent behind him with another place on the podium.
The result leaves the early Championship with two distinct claims at its head: Masse's opening victory and Sirén's uninterrupted lead here. The next round will test which of them can carry that form beyond a single afternoon.