Sirén Holds Crozet Off by 0.749 Seconds
Crozet stayed within reach to the flag, but Sirén kept the lead he had taken on the opening lap and left the third Championship round in sole possession of first place.
A lead that had to be defended
Drik Crozet had pole position, but Kasperi Sirén led at the end of the opening lap. He was still ahead at the end of each of the 40 laps that followed. That makes the victory sound more comfortable than it was. Crozet remained a threat deep into the race, repeatedly running within two seconds of the leader in the closing stages, and after 41 laps Sirén reached the flag just 0.749 seconds ahead.
The two men had spent much of the afternoon in close company. For 13 successive laps early in the race, Sirén, Crozet, Simone Porcu and Andrew were covered by less than five seconds. The group contracted to Sirén, Crozet and Porcu through the next phase, with no opportunity for the leader to regard his advantage as secure. Sirén's Formula RSS 1970 V8 stayed in front, but Crozet's presence behind it gave the closing laps their edge. The lead he won on the first tour had to be protected all the way to the chequered flag.
Third place in contention
Andrew's third place was part of the same contest rather than a distant result behind the leading pair. He and Porcu ran within two seconds of one another for 14 successive laps early on. Porcu was still ahead at the end of lap 24; by the end of lap 25 Andrew had moved in front. Porcu ultimately finished fourth, while Andrew closed on Crozet and took third less than a second behind him.
Andrew also recorded the fastest lap at 1:27.758, only eight hundredths quicker than Sirén's best. It was a small distinction in a race of small intervals. Crozet could not dislodge Sirén, but neither did he have much room to spare over the man behind him. The three podium places were settled in that order after a contest which had involved four drivers for a substantial part of its opening half.
Changes further back
Mika Hakala made the sharpest start among those in the middle of the field, rising from 11th on the grid to sixth by the end of the first lap. His progress did not settle his afternoon. Tommie van-Ostade, who had started 12th, remained close to Hakala through a lengthy spell and moved ahead before half-distance. Van-Ostade's race then brought him into another prolonged contest, this time with Richard Rossier. After running close together through the later middle laps, van-Ostade was ahead by the end of lap 36.
Van-Ostade finished sixth, Rossier seventh and Hakala eighth. Those positions gave some measure of how the order had changed since the opening lap, without diminishing Hakala's early gain. At the front, too, the final order concealed how little separated the principal contenders for much of the distance.
The Championship turns
The result also changed the order at the top of the Championship. Sirén had shared the lead with Florian Masse before this round; his victory put him first alone on 80 points, three ahead of Masse. Crozet's second place left him third on 71. With three of the six rounds run, these are still the standings of a contest in progress, but Sirén now has something more substantial than a share of the lead.
This was his second successive Championship victory. The manner of it mattered as much as the repetition: Crozet had started ahead of him, stayed close late in the race and conceded less than a second at the flag. Sirén took the points without ever having the luxury of putting his nearest opponent out of reach.
Halfway through the Championship, the order has begun to take shape, though the race offered little reason to think it settled. Sirén leaves with the advantage; Crozet leaves knowing how closely he was able to pursue it.