An exciting qualifying has set up a fantastic race here in Laguna Seca. Einarsson starts on pole for Renault, ahead of Lada's Ostberg and Arrow's van Snelheid. But while championship leader Taylor and Cesar start in the top 10, rivals McLaughlin and Zozulya are much further back. A dry day has arrived after the rain yesterday, but strategy is still a crucial part of the race. Only Bergkvist starts on the hard tyres this time around. Van Snelheid is the highest placed on mediums, along with Zvironas, Klein, Cesar, Garcia, Thunder, Vocquelin, Maxwell, Davies, Stokey and Zhao. The rest of the grid, 18 drivers, are on softs. Off the start, the medium runners struggled, as Zvironas and Klein were swamped by Yoshida and Taylor. The Japanese driver was up to 3rd, but Taylor showed quick pace and by lap 3 was past into the podium places. Einarsson ahead had started well but Ostberg put him under pressure and on lap 6, he pulled alongside through the 1st corner thanks to a great slipstream and took the lead. Behind them, Ellington took full advantage of starting behind 5 medium cars, passing them all by lap 10. Thunder and Garcia also dropped further back, as McLaughlin moved up into the top 10 ahead of Matthews, who he passed off the line. Further back, Haugland pulled off on lap 5 with a oil pump failure, while Zozulya made up 5 places in the early stages to move into the points in 15th - Hudson also made up 5 places, Holzberg 4.
Having built up a 3 second lead, it all went wrong for Ostberg on lap 13 when he locked up at the Andretti hairpin and ran wide - as he rejoined, he got on the marbles and spun around, dropping him down to 4th and putting Einarsson back in the lead. Ellington continued his climb up the order with overtakes on Zvironas and van Snelheid to move into 5th, with McLaughlin doing likewise on Klein and Cesar. The latter was alsp passed by Matthews, dropping him out of the top 10. Meanwhile, Downton ordered Maxwell to let Zozulya past, with the title contender now chasing after Garcia and Thunder. Taylor was now chasing after Einarsson, looking for a way into the lead. But he got too cocky - the Briton tried a desperate dive into the corkscrew and hit the side of Einarsson, sending both spinning around. Yoshida and Ostberg flew by, with Taylor recovering to 3rd ahead of Ellington, and Einarsson left completely furious in 5th. All of the top 5 were soon dealt a tough card however when Agostino's car died on lap 26, coming to a halt near the pit entry. The safety car was called and while it only lasted 3 laps, it coincided with the soft runners first stop on lap 28, dropping them to the back. When the race restarted, van Snelheid led from Zvironas and Klein, followed by Cesar, Thunder, Garcia and Maxwell. Yoshida was now 13th, ahead of Ostberg, Taylor, Ellington, Einarsson, McLaughlin, Matthews, Zozulya and Hutchinson. The race restared on lap 29 and van Snelheid was away safely. Further back, Matthews was caught napping at the restart, slipping behind Zozulya and Hudson, before the Lada surprised Zozulya with a late move at the final corner. There weren't many lead changes apart from that, but Zvironas and Klein engaged in a fierce duel for 2nd. Frustrated at being stuck for a couple of laps, on the 37th tour, Klein tried a move on the outside of turn 3. He was halfway alongside as they entered turn 4, kept his nose there, but Zvironas took the racing line and the two speared of the track and into the wall. The pair were alright but with that and a spin from Hutchinson in sympathy afterwards, another safety car was called. This time it coincided with the medium runners' only pit stop: dropping them to the back. This SC lasted 6 laps and when the race restarted, Yoshida was back into the lead, with Bergkvist spliting McLaughlin in 6th and Hudson in 8th, Zozulya in 9th. Behind him, Matthews, Holzberg and Kasami were all in the points while van Snelheid was now 17th, ahead of Cesar, Thunder and Garcia. Taylor didn't look quite the same after his incident with Einarsson and Ellington passed him with relative ease, moving onto the podium. Zozulya had to fight harder to pass Hudson, but he got it done on lap 45. Bergkvist continued to slip back, while Matthews had an off on lap 46, allowing Holzberg and Kasami through. The K8ley would soon pull off an impressive overtake when he dived past Holzberg at turn 2 from miles back. Behind them and Domenicalli, Ledesma and Bruner passed Nakumaya, placing them in the bottom 2 points positions. Noticably, van Snelheid was unable to make any progress, as were any of the medium runners. They ended up fight amongst each other, with Thunder forcing her way past Cesar and van Snelheid. Back up front, soft runners boxed for the last time on lap 56. The top 4 held their positions with Einarsson and lower emerging behind Bergkvist, with Matthews onwards also behind Thunder/van Snelheid/Cesar, the trio now in 12th - 14th. Some drivers handled the new tyres better: race leader Yoshida was not one of them. He struggled, and Ostberg pounced to retake the lead, Ellington also moving into 2nd. McLaughlin was looking rapid though, sything past Einarsson and Bergkvist to close in on Taylor. Hudson repassed Zozulya, while Bruner somehow managed to overtake Domenicalli. Taylor defended hard against McLaughlin, know a good result for the New Zealander could haul him right into the title fight. But the Mitsubishi driver knew too, and was pushing like hell. He tried a switchback overtake at turn 5 on lap 64 and executed it to perfection, blasting past Taylor to take 4th. The Zozulya - Hudson battle continued as they closed in on Einarsson, when a botched attempt by Hudson to pass allowed Zozulya to sneak through and then pass Einarsson, placing him only one place behind Taylor, albeit well behind on track. Cesar meanwhile got the bit between his teeth, passing van Snelheid and Thunder before pulling away as he attempted to stay ahead of soft runners. Van Snelheid was unsuccessful at that, dropping out of the points along with Bergkvist. The battle in front of those two began to heat up: Matthews had worn his tyres and dropped behind Bruner and Domenicalli into 15th. The latter tried to overtake Bruner but the Thunderhead held his own, as the two eased past Thunder. It was only when they caught Cesar that Domenicalli made the pass on Bruner, and he followed it up with a penultimate lap pass on Cesar. In front of that, Einarsson, still angry at being punted out of the lead, got the bit between his teeth and put Zozulya under pressure, until the Downton driver ran wide at turn 2. He swooped in, drew alongside at turn 3, and completed the move early to retake 6th. But the eyes were at the front: McLaughling drove like a driver chasing a title as he caught Yoshida with 5 laps left, before going around the outside of him at turn 9 with an outrageous move. But he saved the best for last - he chased Ellington, caught him on the last lap, got a fantastic run out of turn 5 and was far enough alongside on the inside as they went into the corkscrew to take 2nd at the death. But at the front, after a mixed season, Ostberg showed a cool head after his earlier mistake to come back and win his first eV race, and his first since his FV2 days. McLaughlin's fabulous 2nd means he enters the final race as Taylor's closest challenger, 2 points behind, while Ellington still collected his first podium of the year and an extra point for fastest lap. Yoshida's 4th was still solid, ahead of Taylor who keeps his title lead but would have expected more. Einarsson had mixed emotions in 6th - 7th was a brilliant recovery from Zozulya but he nevertheless is now 9 points adrift of Taylor. Hudson's 8th means Lada now fire themselves right to the top of the standings, 9th was a nice reward for a nice race from Kasami and Holzberg brought some joy for BMW with 10th. Domenicalli backed up his teammate in 11th, Cesar battled well for 12th but sadly his title push is now over and wonder of wonders, Bruner secures his and Thunderhead's first points ever in eV in 13th. Thunder and Matthews rounded out the points scorers.
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