The championship leader headed to Singapore full of hope to secure the 2025 championship, but it was not to be. In the end, Junio Lopes took points off him to reduce the deficit to only 66 points with 2 rounds to go.
Qualifying was initially dry, but ended up being run mostly in increasingly damp conditions, which meant everyone’s first run mostly counted as their qualifying effort. It was Ben Skinner, returning for Orbit, who took the pole position, with Sandeep Singh P2 and Lopes P3. However, Skinner had a significant penalty to serve and had to start from the back of the field.
Everyone ran the wet compound tyres in warmup and stayed on them for the race start.
In the race, Lopes quickly got past his championship rival and scampered off into the distance. Tuomaala, starting P3 after qualifying 4th, was Sandeep’s closest competitor in race 1. A race-long battle ensued, and it was impossible to know who would come out on top, but wise heads prevailed and Singh hung on to an excellent P2.
Behind them, there was a fun battle in the top 10 between Jongstra, de Vree, Glamseter, Vakuinof and Patteson. It looked for a long time like Craig Patteson would hold on, but ultimately he was somewhat mugged in the closing laps as it was Jongstra who would take P5, just behind Magnus Okkenhaug, who is having an excellent run towards the end of the season.
There were some DNFs further back but the racing was, in the main, pretty clean.
Race 2 came around, and it had somewhat dried. A few drivers, including Remco de Zeeuw and Mihajlo Vicentijevic, started on slicks, but they soon were several seconds per sector off the pace and ultimately, the track was not yet dry enough. A dry line began to appear as the race went on, but it was the wet-shod drivers who were dominating the pace.
At the top of the timing tower, Kert Rohtjaerv was setting the pace. Fastest lap after fastest lap popped up and ultimately it was a dominant performance by Kert. Kert was gifted P1 after reverse grid polesitter Szilagyi crashed on the formation lap and lost his front wing, having to start from the pitlane as a result.
He wasn’t the only one – Czerwinski also started from the pitlane after losing his front wing in a bit of a bunch up right in front of pitlane entry that involved him, Junio and Sandeep.
Behind him, Alessandro Iannone, debuting in FS2 for Scuderia Freccia Nera, was doing a great job of holding on to second place. The Italian making his mark immediately on the career ladder.
The fight was heating up for 3rd though. Okkenhaug and Scarpelli were at it for the final few laps, and ultimately it was the Italian who made an audacious move around the outside of the final corner to pip the Hunter Burch Racing driver to the podium.
There was also a fight between both KAP Clay drivers, and once again Patteson and Glamseter. Patteson looked likely for a period to take 5th, but had to settle for 7th in the end, just ahead of Lopes, who made up 6 spots from his reverse grid 13th.
Singh was not so lucky – some contact and bad luck meant that he had to settle for 3 points in 13th place, which put a slight dent in his ambition to seal the title early. He is still absolutely the favourite, has driven well all season, and it would take a miracle for Junio Lopes to usurp him at this point.
