A fantastic start saw 3 red streaks on our screen as Hadrian, Josh and Elias sped around turn 1 at the Sepang International Circuit for the 28th race! The procession filed through the first sequence of corners, with all of us wondering who would be the first to make a move. 

The final corner of lap 2 was where Josh pounced. Hadrian moved to the inside, breaking Josh’s slip stream. So, the Australian ‘race smith’ went wide, compromising his entrance to the corner. But Josh had a plan and used his line to get a truly fantastic exit coming out of 15 then gunned it down the main straight. 

France and Australia were side by side as they crossed the start-finish line onto lap 3. Hadrian pushed Josh right up to the pit wall. But the Aussie hung in there and powered down into turn 1 ahead of the Frenchman. For a second it looked like Josh had gone too deep, and Hadrian came back on the inside of the corner. But as is the nature at Sepang, Josh was now set up on the inside of T2 and dove into the corner. The right front endplate of the number 5 car came into contact with the rear left wheel of Hadrian’s 26 and although both drivers continued, we now had an Australian race leader. 

Hadrian was under immediate pressure from the pack behind him. Lucca, Elias and Shihab had been fighting each other, but sensing blood in the water, were now all over the back of the Frenchman. Through turn 4 it was so close we couldn’t tell the cars apart and then down through turn 5 they went four cars wide, with Josh just inches ahead. 

Despite the ridiculously close racing, Hadrian held onto his second position until the end of the race, making it Josh, Hadrian, Lucca at the flag. A truly fantastic end to the weekend that set the standard for the rest of the year!