Diogo Pinto has taken the championship lead in the Porsche Esports Supercup, after a sprint race win in a very chaotic weekend.
The Team Redline Porsche24 driver took pole position for the nine-lap sprint at Barcelona-Catalunya, ahead of round one sprint winner Dayne Warren, but an entertaining battle between them ended as Warren was tagged by Charlie Collins only on lap two. Collins himself was then taken out of the picture – along with Zac Campbell – as Gianni Vecchio slid through Turn 10 following contact with his own team-mate Maximilian Benecke.
While Alejandro Sanchez was eventually able to reel in Pinto, the laps ran out to make a move for the lead. Jeremy Bouteloup would come through in third. Importantly for the reverse grid, it was Kevin Ellis Jr in eighth, to start the feature on pole.
Ellis and Fluke started well, but the race was defined by another Turn 10 incident. Again Collins was involved, this time being the missile after being tipped into a spin by Graham Carroll. Collins hit the barriers and skittled the pack ahead, taking out Pinto and Sanchez, as well as pre-season favourite Sebastian Job and Peter Berryman.
With so many championship contenders effectively out and team-mate Jamie Fluke backing him up in second, Ellis was able to drive the last 17 laps almost untroubled to take his third ever PESC win, with Campbell rounding out the podium.
Job had a better weekend in the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup GB, where he returned to defend the title he won in 2021.
Again, the event headed to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit for the first two rounds of the season, and – just as he did last year – Job took pole position by a relatively comfortable 0.2s margin from Berryman.
The front four of Job, Berryman, Ellis, and Carroll set a blistering pace up front, working together to pull away from Jack Sedgwick in fifth as a group. All of the action happened in the last two laps, as Ellis attacked into Copse, but Job was able to retake the lead in Stowe and bring Carroll up into third too. That would be how they’d finish, to set up the reverse-grid second race.
Blair Mann would start on pole ahead of Sedgwick, but Berryman made the best start of all and took the lead before the Wellington Straight. As Mann fell back down the order Ellis would follow Berryman past Sedgwick much later in the lap, with Job right behind. Sedgwick would end up in the gravel after Carroll made contact at the end of lap two.
That gave Berryman some breathing space at the front, and he’d cruise to victory with team-mate Ellis just behind. However, first and third for Job, plus the pole position bonus point, is enough to see him in the early championship lead, ahead of Ellis.
ROKiT Racing Star returned for its second round this week, with half-hour races at the Red Bull Ring for the two groups.
Again the girls’ section was a little thin with just five qualifiers, but race one winner Monica Boulton-Ramos put her car on pole position again. Although caught up in a lap one incident, the championship leader proved too quick and won by more than 10 seconds from Jess White, with Macie Hitter third.
In the boys’ section, it was Dylan Warren again taking victory, though he had to do it from second on the grid after Theo Micouris beat him by 0.009s in qualifying. Warren however took the lead off the line into turn one and never surrendered it despite race-long attention from the pole-sitter.
Daytona hosted the first round of the 2022 eNASCAR iRacing Series, ahead of the real-life Daytona 500, and saw a maiden win for Femi Olatunbosun in a virtual photo finish.
Former Daytona eNASCAR winner Nick Ottinger started the race on pole position. He shared the lead with Michael Conti for the entire first half of the race, but found himself shuffled down the pack after the pit stops, and span out of contention late on.
With a three-lap sprint to the finish, Olatunbosun hit the front with Garrett Manes and Steven Wilson. Manes tried to go high off the final turn, while Wilson went low, but Wilson bumped Olatunbosun just enough to see him take his first win – by 0.009s and 0.011s from Wilson and Manes respectively.
F1 Esports Challengers returned for its third round, with races taking place at Red Bull Ring and Silverstone on all three platforms.
Tomek Poradzisz showed why he’s 40 points clear on the PC leaderboard, taking both pole positions and both race wins. Tom Manley managed the same feat in the Xbox event, now sporting an even larger 79-point lead. Jordin Poland and Matthew Alder took the spoils in the PlayStation event, with Alder now 17 points ahead of Duncan Hofland in the overall table.
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