© Visa Cash App Racing Bulls2025 Sim Racing World Championship - Event 3 Report The Season Finale
TomManleyroundedoutanotherconsistentseasonfortheRacingBullswitha12thplacefinishinanincrediblycompetitiveDrivers’Championship.
Manley, who ended the year on 53 points, finished inside the top 10 in nine out of 12 races and was unfortunate to miss out on a podium finish on a couple of occasions.
Event 3 started well for Manley with a fifth-place finish in Mexico City and was followed up with another top 10 in Abu Dhabi during the season finale.
In the second seat, both Ulaş Özyıldırım and Declan Barrett showed flashes of pace at time, but neither were quite able to match Manley’s standards on a consistent basis.
The Racing Bulls team ended the year eighth in Constructors’ standings, but with plenty to build on heading into 2026.
Race9–MexicoGP
Both Racing Bulls drivers made a nice start to Event 3 during Mexican qualifying, with Özyıldırım slotting into P7 and Manley just behind in P9.
Özyıldırım made the better race start too, jumping into P6 and remaining there until pitting on Lap 13 for the hard tyres.
Manley lost one place in the opening stages but having started on the hard compound, ran longer into the race than his teammate. He pitted on Lap 18 from P4 for the medium tyre and quickly began making his way back through the field.
On Lap 22 Manley passed Özyıldırım for P7, taking advantage of his softer and fresher tyres, before taking advantage of a collision ahead to move into fifth. He pushed Frederik Rasmussen mightily in the closing stages as he sought to earn that elusive podium but finished the race in an impressive fifth.
As for Özyıldırım, he was disqualified from the race and docked all of his championship points for unsportsmanlike behaviour that occurred during the race.
Race10–BrazilGP
With Özyıldırım serving a ban following the incident in Mexico, Manley was the only Racing Bulls driver competing in qualifying at Interlagos and it turned out to be one of his more disappointing sessions of the year, as the Brit could only manage P18 on the grid.
However, both drivers picked up a place at the race start, managing to avoid incident in the damp conditions. Manley ran in 17th until Lap 9 when he swapped his intermediate tyres for a set of mediums.
Özyıldırım switched onto the hard compound a lap later but lacked pace on that tyre and sank down the leader board. Up the road, a second spell of rain saw a flurry of pitlane action as many of the leaders scrambled to switch back to the intermediate tyre.
Manley pitted for a second time on Lap 23 and soon began showing his skill in the difficult conditions, passing Josh Idowu and Fabrizio Donoso with a single move at one point. His charge continued in the closing stages, but he wasn’t quite able to make up enough ground to secure a point for his efforts and finished the race in P11.
Özyıldırım, unable to recover one back on the intermediates, ended up P20.
Race11–QatarGP
Manley was joined by Declan Barrett in the second car for the penultimate round of the season at the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar, as Özyıldırım sat out. Both drivers were somewhat disappointed in qualifying though, with Manley P14 and Barrett P19.
Putting aside a difficult qualifying session Manley made a fabulous start to the race, jumping three cars in the opening corners. Clearly enjoying life on the soft tyres, he then passed Lucas Blakeley and started Lap 2 in P10.
Barrett was also making steady progress on the hard tyres, running as high a P4 at one point while others pitted around him, including Manley on Lap 12. When Barrett finally boxed on Lap 19 for a set of mediums, Manley was back up to P10.
The Brit made two further overtakes and looked set for a great result, but the combination of contact with Shanaka Clay and three-second time penalty saw him fall down the order and finish in P14. As for Barrett, he finished in P16 after a solid second stint.
Race12-AbuDhabiGP
Özyıldırım once again showed impressive speed in qualifying and put his car eighth on the grid ahead of the final race of the year, while Manley endured one of his worst sessions of the season in P16.
Starting on the hard tyres, Manley decided to run long in a race where the strategy was split among the drivers. He stayed out until Lap 19 before pitting from P3 and re-joined the circuit with a fresh set of medium tyres.
As other drivers struggled with tyre wear and penalties, Manley picked his way back through the field in the closing stages to finish in P10 and secure a bonus point for fastest lap, an admirable performance given his starting position.
As for Özyıldırım, he was running well in the early stages but picked up a three-second time penalty shortly after pitting. He continued to battle and made his way back up to P11 but was eventually forced to retire from the race.
