Esports News | Williams wins Kyalami 9 Hours | GRR

An Audi-dominated qualifying session for the race saw something of a surprise result as the Wipperman Racing car set the fastest time of all in the hands of Jakob Ostermann. He outpaced Daire McCormack of Williams Team AMG – the only non-Audi in the top four – by just four hundredths, with Vojtech Fiala (Williams) and Kamil Pawlowski (ITB Saintloc) forming the front two rows.

The race was barely 30 seconds old when the biggest incident happened – and one with potentially major consequences for the championship.

Exiting Barbecue corner, Jack Alexander of the silver category Jean Alesi team nosed into the rear of Jordan Sherratt in the factory Scuderia Ferrari, spinning the red 296 right into the middle of the track. Just about every car from tenth backwards was involved in the ensuing accident, with Sherratt taking multiple hits – and the FFS Racing car ending up on its roof.

That effectively dumped the championship second-place car to the tail of the field as Sherratt attempted to nurse the crippled car back to the pits. Ferrari wasn’t the only big casualty of the incident either, which also accounted for Unicorns of Love and silver class second-place YAS Heat car. Alexander also earned a 30-second stop-go for the incident.

More mayhem ensued when the pit stops started, with the lead car spinning in pit entry. That would gift the lead to the Williams team, though initially that was Fiala in the Audi – before the double-stinting McCormack made an on-track pass at Leeukop.

With van der Velde in the Audi, the core Williams team took the lead again with three hours on the clock, and they’d start to turn the screw on the sibling Mercedes outfit before the heavens opened with four hours remaining.

That saw cars diving in for wet weather tyres, with the exception of the Wipperman car. It proved to be a tactical error as both Schill (Team BS+) and McCormack breezed past on wets. McCormack would pass Schill shortly after, but picked up a warning for causing a collision in the process.

As night fell, the lead Audi’s advantage grew – helped along by the Williams AMG and Team BS+ cars’ continued scrapping, which boiled over with just 25 minutes remaining. McCormack didn’t heed the prior warning and made a highly optimistic lunge into Leeukop, barging Schill off the outside of the corner. Unsurprisingly that attracted a ten-second penalty for the Mercedes.

Even a last-minute rain shower couldn’t dampen the Williams team, who crossed the line after 316 laps to take victory. Their colleagues in the Mercedes would finish second on the road some 30 seconds back but drop behind Team BS+ once the penalty was taken into account.

McLaren Veloce retains the championship lead, courtesy of a seventh-place finish in class to hold a ten-point lead over Team BS+. Both Williams outfits are tied for third on 38 points, one point further back.

An eventful silver category race saw the Team Racing Point Aston Martin claim class victory in sixth overall, courtesy of a well-executed pass on the second place Asetek SimSports Visceral Ferrari just after half way. GetCloserRacing would round out the class podium, while RennWelten eSports Red now leads the category championship table.

Intercontinental GT Challenge Round 2 results

1. Williams – Crossland/Fiala/Rodrigues/van der Velde (Audi R8 GT3 Evo) – 316 laps
2. Team BS+ – Boquida/Kammerer/Naujoks/Schill (BMW M4 GT3) +36.997
3. Williams AMG – Blajer/McCormack/Schoeniger (Mercedes-AMG GT3) +40.958

Lamborghini Real Race Super Trofeo qualification underway

The first four drivers have booked their places in the 2023 Lamborghini Real Race Super Trofeo, following the first qualification race at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Florian Duhrkop claimed victory in mixed-conditions, winning the hour-long race on the Riviera with some bold moves through Signes – taking the lead at the halfway point from polesitter Marco Lomi.

Lomi had much of the early running, pulling out a four-second advantage before the rain came down. However Duhrkop proved the class of the field on the wet track, and while Lomi looked to make the last third of the race intriguing he’d disconnect from the race and fail to finish.

Simone Seminara was his closest challenger until Amos Laurito breezed past with just under 15 minutes remaining. Seminara lost time throughout the final quarter of the race, falling back into the clutches of David Kalocsai and Stefano Bonsignore – with three cars squabbling over the final two qualification positions on the last lap.

Kalocsai would lose out as he was briefly held up by Seminara, allowing Bonsignore past to claim fourth.

Lamborghini Real Race Super Trofeo Race 1 results

1. Florian Duhrkop – 30 laps
2. Amos Laurito +14.578
3. Simone Seminara +20.427

British F4 Esports Championship returns in September

The British F4 Esports Championship will be returning for another season this year with a new, additional feeder series running alongside.

Officially sanctioned by Motorsport UK, the 2023 championship will run from September through November, and feature races at British circuits using the FIA F4 car in the iRacing simulator – which recently announced a partnership with the FIA.

The event will also stage a feeder series using the virtual Ray FF1600 Formula Ford, with this series limited to “non-pro” sim racers only.