Esports news | Benecke scores first ESL R1 win of the season

Benecke, who thought he’d won last time out at Spa before a highly controversial stewarding decision demoted him, was able to fend off R8G’s Jiri Toman in a thrilling ten-lap final at the Hockenheimring to claim the victory. The knockout phase – pitting one driver from each of the 12 teams against one another until all four have raced once – threw up a few surprises, but none more so than James Baldwin (Mercedes) being eliminated. Having been so close to the Spring Season title, Baldwin hasn’t made much impact this season and was knocked out after a poor qualifying session.

Joshua Rogers (Porsche) and Luke Bennett (Redline) both won their knockout rounds to claim their second race wins of the season, while Kevin Ellis Jr (ART) and Thibault Cazaubon (R8G) each took their first wins of the season in the other two races. Both Porsche and team championship leader R8G managed to get all four drivers through to the semi-finals, and every one of the top nine drivers – including double-round-winner Sebastian Job – made it through unscathed.

Instead, the shocks were in store in the semi-finals, and that started with arguably the biggest name in the field. Defending champion Marcell Csincsik (R8G) had a nightmare in qualifying, collecting a slow-down penalty which would see him starting last on the 12-car grid – with the rest of the field separated by less than two-tenths of a second. From there he couldn’t make any in-roads, gaining only one position at the expense of Enzo Bonito (Redline) early on and being eliminated. 

Bennett had no such issues, claiming pole position and sprinting away with the race. Benecke originally finished in second, ahead of Dayne Warren (Porsche), but the two drivers were swapped in the official results – likely as a result of some heavy lap one contact between the two through the Arena section. Erhan Jajovski (R8G) and Daire McCormack (Williams) were also safely through but, despite his earlier race win in the knockouts, Ellis Jr was eliminated. More surprises were to follow in the second semi-final, as both Rogers and points-leader Sebastian Job (G2 Esports) would be knocked out after both received slow-down penalties in hot-lap qualifying. 

Job had made some good progress early in the race, moving up to eighth, but was accidentally shovelled off the track by Jack Keithley (Williams) on lap three, dropping the pair to 11th and 12th respectively. Rogers managed to climb up to seventh, but was over a second behind Yuri Kasdorp (Mouz) for that vital final qualifying spot at the finish.

Jiri Toman (R8G) had qualified on pole position for the race, and just about managed to fend off the attentions of Kevin Siggy (Redline) to take the win. Just like Ellis Jr. in the first semi-final, Cazaubon couldn’t repeat his knockout stage heroics and was eliminated.

That left an unusual lineup for the final, with McCormack the only driver in the championship top-four taking part – but he too caught a slow-down penalty in qualifying to line up last on the grid.

Pole position went to Benecke who’d saved the best lap time of the day until last, beating Toman by 0.04s, and the Mouz driver would put in a perfect shift to streak clear and take a lights-to-flag win. Toman was close throughout but never really threatened, while Moritz Lohner was eventually able to overcome Eamonn Murphy to take a double podium for the Mouz team.

Job still leads the driver’s championship, but his lead over McCormack has been cut to eight points. Toman and Benecke climb up to third and fourth respectively, only a few points further back. R8G has extended its championship lead in the team standings to 202 points over Williams, with Porsche and G2 now nipping at their tail.

ESL R1 Fall Season Round 3 Results

1 – Maximilian Benecke (Mouz) – Audi R8 GT3 Evo – 10 laps
2 – Jiri Toman (R8G) – Audi R8 GT3 Evo – +0.232s
3 – Moritz Lohner (Mouz) – Audi R8 GT3 Evo – +2.035s

Hockenheim also hosted the first race of the 2023 Porsche Esports Supercup Contender Series, the final qualifying series for the 2024 Porsche Esports Supercup. Only the top 15 drivers in the six-round series will qualify for the flagship event, alongside the best of the drivers from the 2023 series itself. The races run in a similar format, with a sprint and a reverse-grid top eight feature race.

With some familiar names on the front row, it was Kevin Nielsen who’d take pole position but he couldn’t hold Bryn Collins off for long as the Coanda man took the lead on lap two and cantered to victory.

Porsche Esports Supercup Contender Series Round 1 Sprint Results:

1 – Bryn Collins (Coanda) – 9 laps
2 – Kevin Nielsen (Fyra) – +1.300s
3 – Alexey Nesov (Urano) – +3.342s

A rather more bad-tempered sprint race followed, with multiple first-lap incidents that took Nesov, Collins, and PESC race-winner Simone Maria Marceno out of contention. It was better news for Quentin Vialatte though, who got the better start on the front row and leapt into a lead he’d never surrender – heading a 1-2-3 for the Apex Racing Team.

Porsche Esports Supercup Contender Series Round 1 Feature Results:

1 – Quentin Vialatte (ART) – 18 laps
2 – Luke McKeown (ART) – +0.424s
3 – Parker White (ART) – +0.663s