Kyalami

A lead recovered

Kyalami produced a race of firm authority rather than easy command. Simone Porcu's Williams was the leading car for 46 of the 50 laps, yet the Frenchman Florian Masse ensured that the Italian could never treat the afternoon as a procession. Masse briefly headed the field from the end of lap two, only for Porcu to reclaim the advantage on lap six. From there the Williams established the rhythm of the race, but the McLaren remained close enough to make every remaining lap matter.

Porcu's eventual winning margin was 1.824 seconds, a modest reward for fifty laps of concentrated work. Masse was still within reach in the closing phase, and the result had the proper tension of a contest in which the leader could not relax. Porcu also set fastest lap in 1:12.393, with Elia Porcu only 0.110 seconds slower, underlining the speed available to the two Williams drivers when the race was at its sharpest.

Masse and Elia Porcu dispute second

Behind the winner, the contest for second place was scarcely less absorbing. Masse and Elia Porcu ran within two seconds of one another from the early stages through to the finish, their McLaren and Williams repeatedly trading the advantage without either being permitted any breathing room.

The battle reached its most conspicuous turn late in the race. Elia Porcu moved ahead by the end of lap 40, but Masse reclaimed second on the following lap. There was no extravagance about either man's effort: merely the sustained pressure of two drivers circulating at almost identical pace and refusing to concede the important place behind the winner. Masse held on to take second, 1.045 seconds ahead of Elia Porcu, who completed the podium.

Thus the top three gave the race its clear shape. Simone Porcu had the decisive lead, but Masse's chase and Elia Porcu's challenge made it a victory that had to be earned rather than merely collected.

A crowded middle order

There was, meanwhile, a second race being conducted in close company behind the leading trio. From lap eight to lap 31, FMG, gilvil77, Mark Johnson and Stefano Bucci circulated as a compact group, never spread by as much as five seconds. The composition altered as the race advanced, but gilvil77, Johnson and Bucci remained the durable core of the argument.

Gilvil77 had earlier exchanged places with Johnson several times, moving ahead by lap 11, yielding the place four laps later, and regaining it by lap 22. The Tyrrell P34 driver eventually emerged sixth. Bucci's Surtees, Johnson's McLaren and FMG's BRM continued their own closely matched running behind him.

The final pages of that contest were particularly untidy for Johnson. He had moved ahead of Bucci by the end of lap 48, but Bucci was back in front a lap later. An incident on lap 49 then cost Johnson another place, leaving the Surtees seventh and the McLaren eighth, with FMG ninth. It was a minor drama in the context of the winning battle, but it gave the middle of the field much of its character.

The table begins to take form

This was only the second of six Championship races, and the points position is already subject to the season's discarded-result rule. Porcu's victory brings him level with Masse at the head of the standings on 40 points apiece, while pitman lies third on 37. Masse's second place was sufficient to carry him into the Championship lead, though Porcu leaves Kyalami alongside him at the summit.

For Porcu, the immediate significance is plain. It was his first victory of the Championship, gained against a McLaren that stayed in contention to the end and supported by a Williams partner who made the podium contest his own. Kyalami has given the table its first recognisable hierarchy, but not yet a master.