This double-header event acts as a qualifier for the final in September, which will see 14 sim racers take on six pro drivers – who’ve also had to come through their own qualification process – at a yet-to-be named venue for the chance to win up to €7,000 (£6,300).
There’s been a number of qualification races for this semi-final across the summer, taking place at Autodrom Most, Nürburgring Nordschleife, Oschersleben, and Sachsenring, but all form was reset going into this weekend’s racing.
Garcia took the first blood with pole position in qualifying. The only driver to break under 1 minute 45 seconds at Imola, Garcia was 0.18 seconds clear of Lohner and his Williams team-mate, and ADAC GT Masters championship leader Nikodem Wisniewski was a further 0.116s back.
From the standing start in the first race, Garcia and Lohner pulled away from Wisniewski, who was busy defending his position from Leon Rudiger. However in his haste to get past the Spaniard, first around the outside of Tosa, and then again around the outside at Rivazza, Lohner allowed the chasing cars to catch up.
With the four cars in close quarters, Wisniewski was then involved in an off-camera incident in the Tamburello chicane, dropping him down to eighth. Lohner finally took the lead through Tamburello on lap nine, after a pretty robust attempt a lap earlier, before building a commanding three-second advantage through the back half of the race.
That result gave Lohner pole for the second race, and he was never seriously troubled in a clean lights-to-flag win, scoring the fastest lap in race two just as he had in race one. Garcia again fell victim to a Williams driver in the Tamburello chicane, as this time Jakub Brzezinski muscled through. Wisniewski recovered to take fourth, courtesy of an overtake on Rudiger and Alexander Dornieden’s misfortune in losing the rear exiting Tamburello.
The top 14 all qualify to next month’s grand final to face six real-world drivers for the prize money.