After the monsoon like conditions in Brazil, the sun was out for the American eV-Prix. And if the sun were shining on anyone, it was Brock Kidd – the home hero, who could wrap up the championship today, starts on pole ahead of Maserati’s Felipe Cesar and Ryota Yoshida. Starting from the front for the 8th time this season, Kidd had starts nailed down at this point and he easily covered off Cesar into turn 1. Majority of the field went through single-filed, though Rodrigo Sanchez went up the inside of Robert Stefansson at turn 4 to nip 4th place off him. As they began lap 2, Kidd, Cesar and Yoshida had pulled away from the rest of the pack. Further back, drivers out of position began to start picking their way through the pack – by lap 10, Kip Maxwell, Aron Einarsson, Sebastian Bergkvist and Will Taylor had all made up 2 places from the start. Steven Kasami also turned heads when he swooped around the outside of Stuart Harrison at the final corner, for 8th place. Crucially for Kidd, Oleksandr Zozulya made no progress from 10th.
Despite somewhat keeping up with Kidd initially, Cesar began to overheat his car and had to drop back. This brought Yoshida, and eventually Sanchez closer. Stefansson also began to close in, but he then spun at the exit of turn 11, dropping him down to 9th and undoing all his hard work yesterday. This promoted Alexander McLaughlin into 5th, while Maxwell, possibly thinking about the teams’ championship, was driving incredibly well – he made light work of Zozulya before easing past Harrison. He didn’t even need to pass Kasami – the Swiss lit up his rear tyres out of turn one and went right around into a spin, leaving him 12th. Back at the front, Cesar was eventually told by the team to let Yoshida past and he did so, pushing the Japanese driver into 2nd at the halfway point. After a fairly quiet race in terms of retirements, Otso Toivonen broke the run when he pitted with brake issues and retired. BMW ended up with a double retirement when Ivan Lesic crashed into the barrier at turn 9 a few laps later. He joined his teammate and Bergkvist on the sidelines – the Swede had struggled after the start and retired with hydraulic problems. None of this fazed 4th placed man Sanchez however – he was sizing up Cesar for a while and eventually passed the Brazilian at turn 4. He then pulled off another overtake there for the third time this race with a late move on Yoshida, to put the Nakley in an incredible second place. In the midfield, Stefansson continued to drop back, while Zozulya finally woke up and began to push, taking Harrison and Einarsson to move into 8th. Taylor also was moving up, making it to 11th with a quarter of the race left. If the race were to finish then, Kidd would have been crowned champion with Zozulya only 8th. But things changed when Maxwell, attempting to overtake McLaughlin, locked up and crashed at turn 1. The safety car was called, and McLaughlin pulled into the pits to retire with suspension issues – officially classed as a mechanical failure. This left Kidd leading from Sanchez, the two Maserati cars, Luke Stokey and Zozulya. The safety car eventually pitted and was followed in by Harrison who had lost significant amounts of power and had to retire. On the restart, Kidd pulled away and Sanchez was left to defend from Yoshida, as was Stokey from Zozulya. The Mexican held on brilliantly to 2nd, but with just a few laps to go, Yoshida got a great run out of turn 11 and got his man at the final corner. The two Jaguars also made up a place late in the race, Zozulya on Stokey and Taylor on Kasami. For Kidd though, it was a fantastic day, and he crossed the line to complete a grand slam – pole, win, fastest lap and leading every race. Yoshida was happy with 2nd and Sanchez, in one of the biggest underdog drives this year, took Nakley’s first podium in 3rd. Cesar scrapped 4th ahead of Zozulya and Stokey, who was impressive despite losing 5th late on. Taylor salvaged 7th, ahead of Kasami who recovered with 8th after his spin. Einarrson’s race went into a slightly limbo after a good start and he only managed 9th, while 10th provided little consolation for Stefansson who was gutted after spinning away a good result. In the drivers’ standings, it’s all but over now – Kidd leads by 24 points from Zozulya, with a maximum of 29 available at the last race. Cesar moves back into 3rd and Yoshida moves up to 6th. Further back, Sanchez makes up 3 places to place 13th. In the teams’ standings, Downton increase the lead they took yesterday to 11 points despite Maxwell’s crash.
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