With only 4 rounds to go in the 2025 championship, Jan Granqvist took a critical pole position in his attempt to recover some of the points he has lost over the last few rounds, with championship challengers Loic Meunier and Jarl Teien down in 8th and 12th positions respectively.
TOP, still well within a shout of the team’s championship, started the race 2nd and 3rd with the best developed car on paper, and were hopeful of a 1-2.
From the start though, it was Granqvist and Rouault, from P4, who got the best getaways as the TOP drivers lost positions. Then, in turn 2, Lehoux and Frelik went side by side, checked each other up, causing Moritz Kropp, who qualified a very respectable P5, to make contact with Carlos Martin’s rear end. Martin sustained damage that he would need to repair at his first stop; overall, not an ideal start for TOP.
Meanwhile, Tom Stevens overtook a couple of cars and crucially made it to the leading pack; DRS was proving to be a very strong tool here at Mexico and he was in 8th place at the end of the first lap.
At the front though, Granqvist and Rouault were able to escape down the road. Frelik and Lehoux were battling for P3 but ultimately Lehoux was not able to sustain his early pace, and kept track extending through the tricky second sector. Ultimately he ended up with a penalty, that was removed by the race director, before again exceeding track limits and getting another drive through. After receiving this penalty, he decided to pull over and quit, for not the first time this season. The commentators said “When you’re retiring over a drive-through that’s not exactly the kind of attitude that I would pick to be a part of my racing team.”
Meanwhile, there was some early indication of diverging strategies. Stephane Rouault stopped on lap 11, whilst Granqvist, Frelik and Meunier stopped on lap 12. THR waitied for lap 14 for Teien and 15 for Stevens. Could they go to a 2 stop strategy? Making up a pitstop in terms of overall race time is always tricky at Mexico, as there is only one realistic overtaking opportunity into turn 1 – you need a really large tyre offset to overtake into the second chicane.
This is something that Meunier was finding out to be somewhat of a challenge. On lap 21 he came across Murno, who was on a different strategy, and with contact moved him out of the way at turn 5. The following lap he sent one down the inside on Dylan Fisher, causing both to run a bit wide, Fisher leaving the track, and the contact put Fisher under pressure from behind. Both were clumsy moves, and showed how much pressure Loic must now be under.
Fisher himself saw his race almost over at the next couple of corners. Xavi Ros then sent one down the inside into T7, and caused both himself and Fisher to spin to the side of the track. Ros then inexplicably drove into the side of Marc Schlueter upon rejoining the track; ultimately this would also cause Schlueter to end his race.
At the front, it was Rouault from Granqvist, Frelik in a solid P3, with Meunier 4th ahead of Kropp, Stevens and Jarl Teien, who had made it up from P12 on the grid to now be line astern with Kropp and Stevens. Could those 3 work together to catch up to the leaders?
Well, with the counter strategy from THR now fully obvious, they had a tyre delta and slowly whittled away the lead. When Rouault pitted from second on lap 32, they had gained over 6 seconds to be right there. Would they react to Stephane or stay out and go for a two-stopper?
Soon, it was clear what the divergent strategies were. Meunier followed his fellow Frenchman in on the next lap, whilst Frelik only took a couple more laps before he was in as well. They were clearly on a three stop – medium tyres for Frelik guaranteed it, and there were too many laps to go for the hards to work.
But suddenly, and out of absolutely nowhere – RAIN! Just as Frelik pitted, a very light drizzle speckled his cockpit, before it went away as fast as it came. There was no thoughts of inters at this stage.
Granqvist boxed the lap after Frelik, leaving THR leading 1-2. Now the race was truly on – could the 3 stoppers make up the 20 or so seconds required before their third pitstop?
THR pitted on lap 43 for another set of hard tyres. They were going to the end. They were around 12 seconds off the lead, but on fresher rubber started to eat into it and looked the stronger option at this stage. However, there were further rain showers. On lap 54, Granqvist pitted in the middle of one, but he chose hard tyres. The radar showed no further rain whatsoever. Sven Schubert, 40 seconds behind Granqvist, threw the dice and went for inters from P13.
Meanwhile, Rouault pitted for inters, then switched back to slicks when the rain immediately stopped, and there was no reason that wouldn’t happen again. Meunier made his final stop at the same time as Rouault pitted for inters and went for mediums. They were almost line astern as they boxed; they would not finish that way.
At the end of lap 59, the rain once again intensified and suddenly it was too wet for slicks. Rouault was ruing his decision to go back to slicks. THR came in, double stacking. Granqvist was in. Frelik, too. They’d all seen Moritz Kropp box a lap before and he was the fastest driver in the middle sector by a country mile.
Suddenly, the order, once everyone had stopped, was Meuiner from Stevens to the tune of 14 seconds, with Teien having been jumped by Granqvist. Meuiner was on slicks; could he hold on to the end with only 11 laps to go?
Then, the rain stopped! Would the track dry out for Loic?
Sadly for the Frenchman, no. It didn’t dry enough and Stevens got through. Then Jan. Then Jarl. Then it started raining again. Meunier stayed out but in the final 11 laps he lost 40 seconds to Stevens. An astonishing turnaround.
And so it stayed at the front. Tom led home Granqvist and Teien for another victory for THR; Teien now moved level with points with Meunier, having had an appeal from an earlier 30 second race penalty at Spa overturned. The decision wasn’t announced but the results were updated; the appeal had clearly been successful and that controversy was felt around the paddock and in the commentary booth.
Granqvist finishing ahead of Teien meant that he was 12 points back in the championship with 3 to go. Those three, and possibly Tom Stevens with an outside chance (he’s 29 points back).
In the team’s championship, THR lead TOP by over 90 points. It’s almost impossible to stop them from keeping their 100% record and winning 3 out of 3 titles in a row, in Superleague.
Moritz Kropp had his best result in over a year, with 4th place, whilst Sven Schubert’s earlier gamble meant he finished 7th, behind Frelik and Meuiner in 5th and 6th. Lucas Murno also had an impressive drive to 8th in the Stax to score their first points of the season. Rouault ended up P9; what could have been for the HRT driver.
We go to Singapore next, and all eyes on the drivers to see who might come out on top in what has been an extremely competitive Superleague season.
