Esports News | George Boothby takes GT World Challenge Europe title

A somewhat chaotic season to date had seen four different winners, for four different teams, and in three different cars in the first four rounds. With little consistency on display, it meant that any one of four drivers, separated by ten championship points, could take the title: Dominik Blajer (Williams), Mikhail Statsenko (ITB Sainteloc), Niklas Houben (Team HRT), and Boothby (Veloce).

It came as little surprise then that there was a fifth different car on pole position after qualifying, with Luke Whitehead (Veloce) lining up in first, alongside Grantas Kareckas (McLaren Veloce).

The best-placed of the championship contenders was Boothby in fifth, with Statsenko one row behind in eighth, but Blajer and Houben had to endure an awful qualifying session – as did all drivers running the Mercedes-AMG machine – and both were starting in very unfamiliar territory outside the top 20. They could take some solace in the number of Silver class cars ahead of them, meaning Blajer’s 23^rd position start, as the lead Mercedes, equated to 12^th in class.

As the reigning GT World Challenge Esports America champion, Whitehead is no stranger to leading races and after fending off an early half-challenge from team-mate Kareckas led a six-car train. Boothby managed to pass Tinko van der Velde in the first turn, with contact through turn two – judged a racing incident – also allowing David Tonizza up into fifth.

The field quickly split into two main packs though following a major incident into turn five. Samuele Villa (Kessel Glitch) seemed to leave his braking just a little too late and tagged Luca Losio (Lamborghini) into a spin. That caused a seven-car pile-up which would later see Villa slapped with a 30-second penalty, but crucially Blajer managed to avoid it all and sneak up into 14^th place and ninth in class.

However, Houben’s championship hopes evaporated on lap two, in what looked like the mildest of contacts with Oscar Tringale (Kessel Glitch) exiting Turn One saw the Mercedes spin to the back of the field.

Tonizza was the first of the front-runners to take a dive into the pits, and it appeared to be the right choice as Kareckas followed a lap later and emerged with the Lamborghini right on his tail. They lost time during their subsequent scrap, and when both Boothby and Whitehead pitted the next time round, Boothby snuck past Kareckas into second.

Later stops for both Statsenko and Blajer saw them also slip down the order and further away from the points they needed for their own championship ambitions.

At the front though, Whitehead was simply cruising to his first victory this season. Boothby trailed him home by just over a second to leap from fourth in the standings to claim the title by eight points from Statsenko. A best result of the season of third for Kareckas moved him up to fourth, behind Blajer who could only finish tenth in class.

The Silver class championship had all-but been concluded in the last round as Vojtech Fiala (Williams) took a healthy 34-point lead over Dario Iemmulo (VS Racing) into the final race. Only a victory would do for Iemmulo, with Fiala no better than 17^th.

However the star of the class in this race was Erik Del Fante (Italian Job), who secured pole position ahead of Iemmulo. In fact, such was his time in the rather unfancied Honda NSX he would actually start third overall.

Del Fante ran just about the perfect race, splitting Kareckas and Boothby through the first half of the race and only slipping behind the lead pack of Pro cars during the pit window. It would be an unexpected victory, denying Iemmulo – who’d come home second in class – any hope of the title. Fiala though has been a constant force this season and claimed his fifth class podium to take the crown by 29 points.

GT World Challenge Europe Round Five results

1. Luke Whitehead (Veloce Esports – Porsche 992 GT3 R) – 35 laps

2.  George Boothby (Veloce Esports – Ferrari 296 GT3) +1.681

3. Grantas Kareckas (McLaren Veloce – McLaren 720S GT3 Evo) +2.023

ESL R1 returns for Fall Season

The big-budget ESL R1 series will return this coming week for its second championship in 2023, dubbed the “Fall Season”.

Once again it will consist of eight rounds of online competition using the as-yet unreleased Rennsport simulator, with 12 teams of four drivers apiece from the biggest names in Esports competing for their places in the season-ending “Major” at Jönköping, Sweden and a share of a €500,000 prize pool.

Each round will consist of four knockout races, featuring one driver from each team racing for six places in the two semi-finals. From there they’ll race, without limitations on the number of drivers from each team, for the 12 spots in the final. The best 24 drivers across the eight-race series will qualify for the Major.

Although the circuits are yet to be confirmed for each round, the calendar is as follows: