Mario Again.

After Mario’s excellent fourth-place finish in last week’s DTM round, he arrived this week with a spring in his step and his sights set on doing the same in F1. Sure enough, in pre-race practice he looked great, his lap times faster than all but Lee’s and Simon’s.

Heat 1 saw Lee open a gap of 0.67 to Simon, David was third and Mario fourth after he’d dominated his group with his best heat of the night.

In Group 2, the night’s faster group, the remaining heats saw Lee and Simon scrap for the lead while Terry and David just scrapped, Terry beating David off the line in every heat and then driving the world’s widest F1 car in his effort to keep David behind him. Time after time David would get his car alongside Terry, only to fall victim to a sideswipe from Terry and have to start the process all over again.

Terry eventually paid the price for his over-exuberance though, his car shedding wings and bits of bodywork and ending the evening all but destroyed, with Terry down in seventh place as a result.

Mario slowed slightly as the heats progressed to give some hope to Chris and Neil that they might be able to catch him, but it was too little too late. For the second week running, Mario went home smiling, his fourth place behind Lee, Simon and David a reward for all his hard work.