Author: Mr Paddock

The pole-sitter lost ground on the opening lap, then took the lead after halfway to win round two. Jayden HW and Adam Celárek completed the podium.

The lead changes hands

Florian Masse started from pole, but his Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth was only fourth at the end of the opening lap. Jayden HW led in his Holden, before Adam Celárek put another Holden ahead by the end of lap two. Celárek held the lead through the first half of the 31-lap race, making this a victory that Masse had to retrieve rather than one he could control from the start.

The decisive change came on lap 18, when Masse moved ahead of Celárek. He remained in front to take his first win of the Championship. HW reached the flag second and Celárek third, the two Holdens following home the Ford. Celárek nevertheless had the fastest lap, his 1:55.088 just 0.054 seconds quicker than Masse's best. The result gave the winner the greater prize, but not a monopoly on the afternoon's pace.

Ground recovered

Kasperi Sirén's fourth place was another result shaped by the early laps. His Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II stood only 11th at the end of lap two; over the remaining distance he worked back into the leading four. That recovery put him immediately behind the podium trio without obscuring how much ground had been lost at the outset.

The opening exchanges were less kind to the Championship's existing leader, Ayrton Titos. An incident at the Texaco Schikane on lap two accompanied a fall from fifth to eighth. He completed the full distance in seventh. There is no need to make more of that episode than the order shows: he lost places early, recovered one in the eventual classification, and saw a new winner emerge ahead of him.

Four cars in company

Behind the principal contest, a compact group gave the later laps much of their character. From lap 18 through lap 31, meisterJaeger, SDH-M ~ HappyKojot, Potatohedron and DJMD19 ran within five seconds of one another. The group had changed its composition as the race developed, with meisterJaeger and DJMD19 already closely engaged before the other two joined them.

HappyKojot and DJMD19 repeatedly traded their order in the closing stages. DJMD19 moved ahead by the end of lap 27, HappyKojot reclaimed the advantage on the next lap, and there was another exchange before HappyKojot was back ahead on lap 31. HappyKojot took ninth, with Potatohedron between him and the 11th-placed DJMD19 in the classification. Their contest did not decide the podium, but it ensured that the race behind it remained unsettled.

A shared Championship lead

Masse's win has an immediate consequence beyond the result. Having stood 16th before this race, he now shares the Championship lead with Titos on 40 points after two of six rounds. The one-result discard already in force leaves Titos's earlier score as his Championship total despite his seventh place here; Masse's winning score brings him level, not clear.

That distinction matters at this early stage. Titos remains at the head of the table, but he now has company there from a driver who began the day well down it. Masse's route from fourth at the end of lap one to the victory is the reason the picture looks different tonight.

The second round offered two measures of a racing afternoon: Celárek's long tenure in front and Masse's timely answer to it. With four races still to run, neither the shared lead nor the finishing order settles the wider question.

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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.

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Ayrton Titos led every lap of the Championship opener, yet Marc Orós kept the winning Mercedes-Benz under pressure to the end. Kasperi Sirén completed an all-Mercedes podium after a 29-lap contest decided by 0.623 seconds.

A lead never surrendered

The first points race of the new Championship produced an unusually exacting victory at Horsma Raceway. Ayrton Titos converted pole position into the win, leading at each recorded passage of the 29 laps, but the bare fact of command did not make his afternoon a comfortable one. Marc Orós was never allowed far from the Spaniard's Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II, and at the chequered flag the two were separated by only 0.623 seconds.

Titos had the advantage from the outset, but the race soon acquired the shape of a three-car affair. Kasperi Sirén joined Titos and Orós in a leading group which had settled into place by the seventh lap and remained contained within five seconds for the rest of the race. There was no room for a lapse among the leading Mercedes drivers: the Finn's presence made the matter more than a private duel, while Orós remained the immediate threat to the leader.

Thus Titos had to defend a lead which, though uninterrupted, was under constant examination. He reached the flag first after 29 laps, Orós second, and Sirén third. Sirén also set the fastest lap, a 2:05.145, to underline the pace of the leading trio.

The pressure of the closing laps

The closing phase belonged to Titos and Orós. The latter remained within two seconds of the leader across the final portion of the race, preserving the contest when a lesser pursuit might have accepted second place. The final margin was scarcely more than half a second, and gave the opening round a finish of rare closeness.

For Titos, the significance lay in the combination of authority and restraint. He had led throughout, but the reward for maintaining that position against Orós's persistent challenge was not merely the first trophy of the campaign. The victory gives him 40 points and the early Championship lead, three clear of Orós on 37. Sirén's third place brings him 34 points, leaving the opening table as close as the race itself had suggested.

There are five races still to come, and a first round can establish little beyond an order of strength on one day. Yet the Horsma Raceway result has placed the three Mercedes men at the centre of the early argument, with Titos having made the first and most valuable statement.

The Nissan contest behind

Behind the podium, Kuba Palubicki and Jacopo Hrynecko conducted a sustained Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R contest for fourth. They were close from the seventh lap to the twentieth, and exchanged the advantage twice in the course of their struggle. Hrynecko moved ahead before half-distance, only for Palubicki to reclaim the position on lap 18.

That proved the decisive alteration. Palubicki finished fourth and Hrynecko fifth, both completing the full distance, while Attila Diner's Audi V8 quattro Evo followed them home in sixth. The Nissan pair could not intrude upon the leading Mercedes group, but their contest ensured that the race retained a second point of tension once the order at the front had begun to settle.

Masse rises from the back

Florian Masse supplied the notable recovery of the afternoon. Starting 30th in the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth, he had risen to 20th by the end of the first lap and continued to work forward through the field. His eventual 16th place represented a gain of 14 positions, an emphatic result in a large 39-car opening field.

It was a drive of a different character from the leading battle, concerned less with a single opponent than with finding space and preserving momentum amid the traffic. Masse completed all 29 laps, and his progress offered a useful counterpoint to the measured contest at the head of the order.

Horsma Raceway had provided a sharp beginning rather than a settled verdict. Titos has the lead, Orós has shown that it will be contested closely, and Sirén's speed ensures that neither Spaniard can regard the next round as a two-man affair.

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Florian Masse won the first round of the Championship at MEX - F1 1970 - R1 - Mexico, assuming command when Simone Porcu's promising race unravelled at half-distance. Willphaizer and FMG completed a closely contested podium.

A lead lost at Espiral

The new Championship began with a full field of 25 Formula RSS 1970 V8 cars and a race whose early order offered little permanence. FMG had started from pole, but by the end of the opening lap Simone Porcu was in front, with the pole-sitter third. Porcu retained the advantage through the opening exchanges, while Florian Masse, FMG and Willphaizer formed a compact leading group from lap 3 to lap 17.

It was Porcu's race to lose until the thirteenth lap. An incident at Espiral dropped him from first to twentieth, and Masse emerged as the new leader. Thereafter the Frenchman made the position his own, completing all 36 laps to win the Championship opener. Porcu's final classification of twelfth gave scant indication of the authority with which he had controlled the first third of the afternoon.

The podium contest

Behind the changing leader, FMG and Willphaizer remained central figures in the front-running contest. Along with Masse, they had run within five seconds of one another for fifteen successive laps in the early and middle portions of the race, a sufficiently close formation to ensure that Porcu's misfortune did not make the result a foregone conclusion.

Willphaizer brought his car home second, three points behind Masse in the first table of the season. FMG, who had begun from pole and was still second late in the race, slipped to third on lap 27 after incidents at Espiral. He nevertheless reached the flag to preserve a podium which reflected his pace over the greater part of the distance. Drik Crozet was fourth and David Czemmel fifth, both completing the full 36 laps.

Sirén's long return

Kasperi Sirén supplied the afternoon's most striking recovery. He had been second at the end of lap 2, only to fall to twenty-fourth on lap 3 following an incident at Peraltada. From there he worked steadily back through the field, and his eventual sixth place was a considerable return from a position which might easily have ended his afternoon.

The Finn's speed was beyond question. His 1:41.305 was the fastest lap of the race, only a little over five-hundredths quicker than Masse's best effort. That combination of the fastest lap and a sixteenth-place-to-sixth recovery lent particular substance to Sirén's points haul, even if the first result of a long Championship can settle nothing by itself.

Progress through the field

Fabien Lauzet also made a substantial advance, rising from seventeenth on the grid to finish seventh. Stefano Bucci was eighth and Stefano Robert Rebessi ninth, while Davide Ricciardi completed the top ten after a late contest with Rebessi that changed order several times. Rebessi reclaimed ninth on the final lap.

Czemmel's fifth position had been earned amid an earlier, sustained contest with Andrew. The pair exchanged the advantage more than once in the first dozen laps, before Andrew later lost ground after incidents on lap 27. Czemmel thus joined the leading six as one of the men to have completed the full distance.

Masse leaves MEX - F1 1970 - R1 - Mexico with 40 points and the first Championship lead, Willphaizer on 37 and FMG on 34. It is only the opening entry in a six-race campaign, but the afternoon established a useful first impression: the front of the field is closely matched, and a moment's disorder can alter the complexion of a race completely.

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