ROUND BY ROUND

Diriyah 1

1 de Vries

2 Mortara

3 Evans

After Audi and BMW reveal at pre-season testing that they will quit at the end of the year, and the Santiago and Mexico City rounds are canned, de Vries kickstarts what will be his title-winning term in untouchable form. The Merc driver tops all sessions.

Diriyah 2

1 Bird

2 Frijns

3 da Costa

Third-starting Bird beats polesitter Frijns in a fine dice.