Formula E had its third round in the Race at Home Challenge with Pascal Wehrlein winning as All-Star ESports Series continued along with the Veloce Not The GP series.
Formula E Race at Home Challenge:
The third Formula E Race at Home Challenge round took place at Monaco’s Monte Carlo circuit. As in other rounds, they had two races, where one was the Challenge Grid with a mix of ESports racers and real racers along with some Youtube personalities.
The other one was the actual Formula E drivers as they used the rFactor 2 game. The Challenge Grid saw BMW Andretti’s Kevin Siggy on pole as he led the way, for the most part, to eventually win Round 3 of the series to extend his championship lead.
Mahindra’s Lucas Mueller was second with GEOX Dragon’s Peyo Peev completing the Top 3. Over in the main Formula E Race at Home Challenge, Mahindra Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein’s took pole ahead of Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne and Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara third.
It was a clean start at the front with Wehrlein leading. Despite a half spin for Vandoorne, he stayed in second with BMW Andretti’s Maximilian Gunther slotting in third after a massive shunt behind which carried on for multiple corners on Lap 1.
In the end it was a clean run for Wehrlein to win Round 3 of Formula Race at Home Challenge ESports event, his first, as Vandoorne was second and championship leader Gunther in third as Porsche’s Neel Jani did well to end up in fourth.
The Top 10 then had Envision Virgin’s Robin Frijns fifth, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland sixth, Porsche’s Andre Lotterer seventh, GEOX Dragon’s Nico Mueller eighth, NIO’s Ma Qing Hua ninth and Venturi’s Mortara 10th to round out the third ESports race.
Here’s the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VizPKu9_hKs
All-Star ESports Series:
One of two other weekly ESports events of the day was the All-Star Series, which had its second race of its second season. This – which took place at Estoril on rFactor 2 – began with the race between the Pro drivers in Formula Race cars, in which Tom Dillman started on pole position, but lost the lead to Hyundai’s Bradley Smith in the first turn, but recovered later in the race.
Ultimately, Dillman was the winner, beating out Agustin Canapino (Williams), and Esteban Gutierrez (Mercedes). Next up was another race in the Formula Race cars, this time for exclusively pro simulator drivers.
In qualifying, Nikodem Wisniewski took the cake, and it became apparent quickly in the race that he was likely to convert this to a win – which he achieved after 10 laps and a battle with Jernej Simoncic – the second-place finisher. Third place was Alex Siebel.
With the first round of the Formula Race competitions in the past, the time came for the first of the Legends aces, which saw pole-sitter Jenson Button run away with the win, leading Emmanuele Pirro and Jan Magnussen.
Shortly after the conclusion of that, the reverse grid ESports races began with the Pro Cup in the Formula Race cars. The results of this went as follows with Job van Uitert winning over Sebastien Montoya – Juan Pablo’s son – and GT racer Nicki Thiim.
In accordance with the original schedule, the next race was with the Pro sim drivers, with Kuba Brzezinski on pole. He ultimately finished second, behind winner Erhan Jajovski, and ahead of Epps.
When time rolled around for the reverse grid Legends race, it was Max Papis on pole, but he quickly lost number one status in the race, as Petter Solberg ran away with the win. Pirro and Mika Salo trailed him across the line.
Here’s the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE4JsNvyIcA
Veloce Not the… GP:
Another race that was run on Saturday was the Veloce Not the GP… Belgian GP ESports round at Spa-Francorchamps. The third of its kind in the series, there were two 25-percent races, one with a standard format, and one with a reversed grid.
The first of the two saw Dani Bereznay take pole in his Alfa Romeo, and lead off the line. And, while he led for much of the first lap, it was not a commanding one, as he and his competitor Cem Bolukbasi (Toro Rosso) dueled it out and traded position.
Bolukbasi and Bereznay’s battles allowed Charles Leclerc to join the fight, and using the draft on the Kemmel Straight, he took the lead. After the pit sequence, though, the two were on equal footing and they continued their fight, minus Bereznay, who was seventh.
The battle between them reached its climax at the Bus Stop chicane on the final lap, where they went side-by-side. In the end it was a photo-finish, with Bolukbasi leading Leclerc, and Bereznay, who had recovered. Pietro Fittipaldi (Haas) was fifth behind Dave Gaming (Racing Point).
In the reverse-grid ESports race, Chris Lake started on pole, but lost first to Antonio Giovinazzi, who quickly pulled out a lead despite chaos behind. After just a short while, though, his lead was threatened by the likes of Lando Norris, Bereznay, and Bolukbasi.
After calamities for countless drivers, including a disconnection for Giovinazzi and Norris, and a crash for Leclerc, the order changed significantly. Bereznay took the lead, and the top three ended him in first, Bolukbasi in second, and Gaming in third. In his Haas, Fittipaldi came fourth, and Jay Pietsmiet came fifth in his Racing Point.
Here’s the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZIvsrKq5QA
Here’s the Twitch streams – including F1 drivers’ – where you can watch it:
Charles: https://www.twitch.tv/iamcharlesleclerc16
Nicholas: https://www.twitch.tv/nicholas_latifi
Lando: https://www.twitch.tv/landonorris
Here’s how the last weekend’s races went