Three New Winners in Formula Trophy Malaysia Round Two Thriller

• Iñigo Anton triumphant for Alex Yoong Axle Sports squad
• Jesse Phillips makes history as Lando Norris LN4 Fusion teams wins on debut
• Timo Jüngling and Xcel Motorsport strike back in rain-hit finale

Sepang, Malaysia, November 8, 2026: Three different race winners from three races encapsulated a thrilling weekend of racing in round two of the Formula Trophy Malaysia (FTM) series at Sepang International Circuit. Iñigo Anton, Jesse Phillips and Timo Jüngling were the drivers to stand on the top step of the podium in what is proving to be a highly unpredictable and wide-open season.

The versatile 21-year-old Filipino Anton claimed Saturday glory for the Axle Sports team of Malaysian motorsports hero Alex Yoong, pressured all the way to the finish by Xcel Motorsport’s Anglo-German talent Jüngling and Jaime Ambrose – the Briton another to come from the Axle Sports stable. But in slippery conditions and intermittent rain in the final race, it was 17-year-old Jüngling who proved the master of the tricky circuit to lead home Anton, with Ambrose third once again.

The second race, from a partially reversed grid, was a thriller. History was made at Sepang as the brand-new LN4 Fusion team of 2025 Formula 1 World Champion Lando Norris, which will take part in all the junior categories in 2027 from Formula 2 down, made its global competition debut. And it proved to be a victorious one, with 15-year-old British youngster Phillips grabbing victory at the final corner of the race from the long-time leader, Chinese racer Chen Sicong. Another last-lap change resulted in Singaporean Rafael Vaessen completing the podium for the Evans GP team.

It all means that Anton has moved into an 18-point championship lead going into the final round, back at Sepang in December, with Jüngling, Vaessen and Juste Mulder – a star of the opening round who did not compete this weekend – tied on points for second. Ambrose’s two wins in the Rookie class – Phillips was the other victor – mean he has leapt to the top of this division with a narrow lead over Aaron Mehta.

Race 1

Iñigo Anton absolutely dominated the action on Saturday. He topped both qualifying sessions by over half a second, and converted his pole position for race one into a lights-to-flag victory. Alongside Anton on the front row was his Axle Sports team-mate Jaime Ambrose, but the Briton was beaten away from the start by third qualifier Timo Jüngling.

It was Jüngling who shadowed Anton throughout the race. The gap between the leading duo soon grew to just over a second, but Jüngling did not drop any further back, and the Xcel driver’s deficit to Anton at the chequered flag after 14 laps of racing was 1.407s. In turn, Ambrose remained close to Jüngling on his way to third position – and a clear victory in the Rookie class.

The best action was behind the top three. Oleksandr Bondarev qualified his LN4 Fusion car eighth, but the 2026 UAE4 champion soon began to make progress in the race. Williams F1 junior Bondarev was up to sixth by the end of the opening lap, and next time around he passed Rafael Vaessen for fifth. He then closed in on Aaron Mehta and, after some thrilling action, Ukrainian talent Bondarev pulled off a majestic pass around the outside of the Evans GP car at Turn 4 on the sixth lap to claim fourth position.

No sooner had Mehta been passed than disaster struck the unfortunate Singaporean and his left-hand rear-wing support collapsed. He battled on for three more laps – still in fifth place – before he was called into the pits by the officials to retire on safety grounds. This elevated another Evans GP-versus-LN4 Fusion battle, in which Mehta’s Evans tm-mate and compatriot Vaessen narrowly held off Canadian Lucas Nanji for fifth.

The third of the LN4 Fusion drivers, Jesse Phillips, fought through to seventh from 18th on the grid following a qualifying altercation. The Briton, who was runner-up in the Rookie class, built a small gap to Chinese driver Chen Sicong (Black Blade Racing). Completing the points scorers were Xcel-run Australian Christian Ayrouth in ninth (and third Rookie), and Indian Arafath Sheikh of Axle Sports in 10th. That was a great result for Sheikh, who only two days earlier turned 15 years-of-age – and therefore eligible to race the Formula 4 machinery used in Formula Trophy Malaysia.

Apart from Mehta, further ill fortune struck Evans GP on the first lap. Ben Hoai Nam Anh Nguyen had qualified fifth, but ran wide into Turn 14. As he attempted to recover to the apex, that put him on a collision course with team-mate Aaryan Singh, forcing both cars into the pits.

Race 2

Chen Sicong’s eighth place in race one gave him pole position on the reversed grid for the following race on Sunday morning, with Jesse Phillips alongside him. Despite the best efforts of Phillips – and Rafael Vaessen, who burst through from fourth in the starting line-up to challenge at the front – it was Chen who held onto the lead at the start. The Chinese driver was still in front on the third lap when the safety car was called. A collision between Kareen Kaur and Aaryan Singh at Turn 15 sent Kaur to the pits for damage repair, while Singh’s car needed retrieval from its position stranded on the outside of the corner.

Timo Jüngling, who had lined up seventh, was the man to watch at the restart. He had passed Vaessen for third place at Turn 4 just before the safety car procedure, and now he was part of a three-car battle for the lead with Chen and Phillips. Jüngling tried an ambitious move into Turn 15 on the first lap after the restart, then slipstreamed Phillips across the start-finish line and dived inside the Briton for second place at Turn 1. But, in his exertions, Jüngling had knocked his front wing askew. Undeterred, he kept the pack at bay for most of the next lap despite his lack of pace, before Phillips repassed him at Turn 15. He was back up to second but, due to the delay behind Jüngling, Phillips faced a deficit of over three seconds to Chen – with just five laps remaining.

Now the English youngster set to work. Down came the gap, sometimes by a second per lap, and as they headed onto the final tour he was tucked right up behind Chen. The Chinese driver got closer and closer to a historic victory for himself and Black Blade Racing, only to get into a slide exiting Turn 14 as they headed onto the long back straight. Chen desperately tried to defend the inside line at Turn 15 – the final corner of the race – but in doing so he braked too deep, ran wide, and Phillips slipped inside to take honours in what had been a thrilling race.

There was more excitement behind. Josh Feng Jiaxi had driven an excellent race from 12th on the grid, Xcel Motorsport’s Chinese racer passing Lucas Nanji and Rafael Vaessen before grabbing third from Jüngling, who eventually headed to the pits for a new front wing. But, amid the final-lap battling, Feng lost three positions and it was Vaessen who completed the podium ahead of Nanji, Oleksandr Bondarev and Feng. Bondarev had suffered an incident with Jaime Ambrose at Turn 2 on the opening lap, and both headed to the pits – the Ukrainian to replace a punctured tyre and the Briton for a new front wing. The safety car allowed them to catch up the field, and Bondarev’s fight through the pack was yet another focal point of the race.

Aaron Mehta took seventh place ahead of Ambrose, who along with team-mate Arafath Sheikh was given a five-second penalty because the Axle Sports team had used hand-held blowers on the grid in order to dry out damp patches on the asphalt. Up to eighth therefore came race one winner Iñigo Anton, who had appeared to stall at the start and got away at the back of the field, with Vietnamese driver Nguyen ninth for Evans GP and Chinese talent Lucas Yu Yan – who did not compete in race one due to feeling unwell – claiming the final point in his Black Blade Racing car. Despite his penalty, Ambrose still completed the Rookie podium behind overall winner Phillips and Meht

Race 3

The domination of qualifying by Iñigo Anton gave the Filipino pole position for the final race, with his Axle Sports team-mate Jaime Ambrose alongside him on the front row. But, just as in Saturday’s opening encounter, Ambrose lost a position to Timo Jüngling at the start. And Jüngling wasn’t stopping there – he grabbed the lead from Anton on the opening lap.

The race began with the track slippery at Turns 3 and 4 due to a localised shower, although this soon started to dry out. Jüngling, using his experience from racing in British F4 in 2026, seemed to cope best with these conditions and extended a lead that at one point stretched to over two seconds. But as the damp patches disappeared, Anton and Ambrose came back at him. Jüngling’s advantage was less than a second with two laps remaining, at which point heavier rain arrived and made life very difficult for the drivers, who were all on slick Giti tyres. Since he was running first on the road, Jüngling had the toughest task in judging the grip available, but did this to perfection and was 2.455s ahead when he took the chequered flag, with Anton second and Ambrose claiming another Rookie victory in third.

Oleksandr Bondarev was fourth throughout the race, but only just beat LN4 Fusion team-mate Jesse Phillips to the finish line. Phillips had started 16th after joining second qualifying late due to repairs still being made following his collision in the earlier session, but he stormed up the field. Unfortunately for him, he was given a five-second penalty for an incident with Josh Feng Jiaxi at Turn 2 on the opening lap.

This should have promoted battling Evans GP pair Aaron Mehta and Nguyen to fifth and sixth. Mehta indeed stayed in the five-second window to Phillips and took fifth position, as well as second in the Rookie class. But Nguyen lost time in the rain at the end of the race and had to settle for seventh behind Phillips, who completed the Rookie podium. Another battle behind was resolved in favour of Lucas Nanji when he passed Rafael Vaessen for eighth on the final lap. Tenth home was Chen Sicong after the unlucky Aaryan Singh pulled off from that position on the exit of Turn 4 on the penultimate lap.