Job and Collins take Porsche Esports wins | FOS Future Lab

Job was aiming for a third successive pole, but had to settle for fourth on the grid in a close session. It was however a British 1-2, as Charlie Collins out-qualified Kevin Ellis for his first pole of the season. Ellis was keen to become the first driver to win a sprint race from anything other than pole, and beat Collins into turn one, but Collins stayed with him and retook the spot into turn three.

Job, who’d qualified behind his rookie team-mate Cooper Webster, lost a spot to Matti Sipila in turn five, while former championship leader Jeremy Bouteloup was tipped into a spin by Maximilian Benecke in the same corner just behind. After a frantic opening lap Collins was able to eke out enough of a gap and took his first ever PESC win. Webster, Sipila and Job took third to fifth spots, with newcomer Julien Soenen occupying the important eighth place for the reverse-grid pole in the feature race.

Zac Campbell might have fancied his chances starting third, but a disastrous first corner effectively ended his race, with his spin leading to further crashes behind taking out Benecke, Dayne Warren, and Yoann Harth. While Soenen held his lead, he now had Job on his tail, but Pinto was the man on the move as he worked his way past first Collins, then Ellis, and finally Webster in short order. With three laps remaining Job spotted a chance to finally dispatch Soenen. In doing so he allowed Pinto to pass both Sipila and Soenen in one hit. 

That set up a titanic battle between Job and Pinto, but the smallest of errors on the last lap saw Pinto drop back into Soenen’s clutches. The two banged doors through the Wurth Kurve esses, with Soenen losing momentum and four positions in one go. Job couldn’t be caught though, winning by just over half a second from Pinto, with Collins rounding out the podium. The result propels Job up the table into second, closing up on Pinto who now leads by 38 points. Ellis sits in third, just two points further back.

Ellis meanwhile almost scored the perfect weekend at Knockhill in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, with only fellow Scot – and direct championship rival – Graham Carroll spoiling the party. The Apex Racing driver claimed pole position at the track by 0.09s from Carroll, who pushed his Red Bull team-mate Job down to third with a late lap, to form a familiar front three – while Ellis’s own team-mate failed to start the race.

However, Ellis didn’t need a rear gunner. Carroll made his move for the lead at the final hairpin after ten minutes, but as the cars ran together through Duffus, Carroll spun out and down the order. Job fell next, clattering the kerb in the chicane and getting fired out into the gravel trap. Although he recovered quickly, Josh Thompson was able to sneak past. Eventually, Job was able to retake the spot, through a similar mistake when Thompson hit the kerb on the exit of Clark.

Ellis was five seconds down the road though and took the win comfortably from Job. However, Carroll had recovered to sixth to take the reverse grid pole for race two. Carroll and Jamie Moone made a clean getaway from the front row but chaos unfolded behind.

First Will Tregurtha eased Job into the gravel at McIntyre, then there was a huge accident for Thompson at the chicane as he and Chadwick banged doors. Chadwick then dropped it all by himself, almost collecting Ellis and Tregurtha as he spun in front of them, but Ellis somehow came through unscathed in third.

By this time Carroll’s advantage over Ellis was significant, and he’d dragged Moone with him. It took Ellis half the race to catch and pass Moone, and while he was able to close right up to the Red Bull driver he couldn’t find his way past – although it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. Ellis now leads the championship by 12 points from Carroll, with Job a further three points behind.

Slovenia’s Kevin Siggy was in similarly imperious form in the second round of the DTM Esports series, as he took both pole positions and a feature race win by an enormous 12 seconds.

Siggy was set for a clean sweep in the Norisring double-header, but with a four-second lead he clipped the wall at the Dutzendteich hairpin, allowing Christopher Hogfeldt and Gianmarco Fiduci past – eventually recovering to take second behind Hogfeldt.

There were no such dramas in the hour-long feature race though, as Siggy just drove away from the chasing pack, led by Alessandro Ottaviani and Gianmarco Fiduci. Siggy now holds a championship lead of over 50 points after just two rounds.