Esports News | van der Velde wins in Alpine Esports Series at Silverstone | GRR
Defending Alpine Esports Series champion James Baldwin has taken his first win of the season, but Dennis Schöniger still holds the championship lead going into the final round.
After a dominant, clean-sweep performance at Circuit Paul Ricard last time out, Schöniger had to settle for sixth on the Silverstone sprint grid as Baldwin set the pace almost half a second ahead of the championship leader.
The race ran in wet weather throughout, but Baldwin didn’t seem intent on taking it easy. Instead he was first into the first turn – unusually at Copse, despite running the modern Arena circuit – and set about building a lead.
Dominik Blajer was able to keep with him as the duo drew clear of third-placed Tinko van der Velde. Blajer set the fastest lap of the race, but couldn’t find a way past the champion and eventually made a small error in The Loop to allow Baldwin a much more comfortable advantage as he ran a lights-to-flag victory.
Further back there was an entertaining race-long battle between van der Velde, Marko Pejic, and Schöniger over the final podium spot.
With two laps remaining, Pejic was finally close enough to van der Velde to make a move into Brooklands but he couldn’t make the move around the outside stick. That allowed Schöniger to sneak through on the inside and take fourth place. Lukas Mateja was also drawn into the scrap, but couldn’t hold a lasting lead over Pejic and had to settle for sixth.
Alpine Esports Series Round 2 Sprint results
- James Baldwin (Mercedes-AMG) – 6 laps
- Dominik Blajer (Williams) +0.834s
- Tinko van der Velde (Williams) +4.139s
Baldwin then had a poor feature race qualifying on the dry circuit, coming across the line only in eighth as van der Velde was the man to catch. Blajer was unlucky to line up second for the second race in a row, just four hundredths behind.
This time Blajer was able to stick with the pole-sitter as the two Williams team-mates ran side-by-side right through to Maggotts before Blajer had to back out. That let Schöniger – who’d beaten Vojtech Fiala off the grid – in on the fight, with a banging of doors sending Blajer across the inside of Chapel and, courtesy of the escape road, back on in second place.
Schöniger came back again through Stowe, but got his braking wrong for Vale and ended up fending off Fiala again rather than gunning for second. All that fighting meant that van der Velde had a second’s lead by the end of lap one.
After spending much of the intervening 15 minutes working together to catch up to the leaders, the Blajer vs Schöniger battle erupted again with a move from Schöniger into Brooklands. Once again he couldn’t quite keep ahead and had to cede position at Copse, with van der Velde again drawing a second clear.
The Loop was Blajer’s undoing again. He got a poor exit with three laps to go and allowed Schöniger to finally get the move done on the Wellington Straight. Van der Velde though was over two seconds up the road at this point and took a comfortable win.
With just the final round to go in Valencia in a fortnight, Schöniger has a slim eight-point lead over van der Velde, though Blajer, Baldwin, and Fiala are all still in with a chance of the title too.
Alpine Esports Series Round 2 Feature results
- Tinko van der Velde (Williams) – 12 laps
- Dennis Schoniger (Williams) +2.252
- Dominik Blajer (Williams) +2.858
The final Friday session of ESL R1’s regular season has seen 20 of the 24 places in the Season One “Major” confirmed following the Quarter-Final stages
Fourteen spots had already been taken, which was just as well for Maximilian Benecke (Mouz) who had a torrid quarter-final that included a drive-through penalty which saw him miss the cut. That race was won in style by Tommy Ostgaard (Heroic), securing his own qualification for the Major, with top-five drivers Jiri Toman (R8G) and Joshua Rogers (Coanda) just behind him.
Points leader Luke Bennett (Redline) had no trouble in his quarter-final, taking a lights-to-flag win from Eamonn Murphy (G2) – which also sees the Irish driver creep into the top 24, but still needing a semi-final finish of eighth or better to qualify for the Major. Bono Huis (Mercedes) saw his hopes come to an end after a penalty saw him start last and miss the cut.
Sebastian Job (G2) also made it through his quarter-final, coming home third behind top ten drivers Marcell Csincsik (R8G) and Daire McCormack (Williams), but he’ll need to continue his form in qualifying for every final in every round he’s raced if he’s to qualify for the Major despite only coming in halfway through the season. Dayne Warren (Coanda) though saw his chances evaporate on lap one after being tagged by Enzo Bonito (Redline).
Mack Bakkum (Porsche) and Mikkel Gade (Heroic) face an anxious wait for their fate after failing to qualify for Monday’s finals in a race that saw W Series driver Beitske Visser (BS+) make her debut in the championship. Jeffrey Reitveld (Redline) won that quarter-final from Erhan Jajovski (R8G).