Job wins again in Porsche Esports Carrera Cup GB | GRR
Deja vu struck in the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup GB fourth round, with the Oulton Park event unfolding just as the Snetterton round had two weeks ago.
Sebastian Job was once again the fastest driver on track in qualifying, securing his fourth pole position in four rounds, with William Chadwick and Matt Emery lining up in championship order in second and third, and top “Am” driver Luke Pennington in fourth.
As usual, Job got a rocket start, but dragged Chadwick and Emery with him. By the end of lap one, Job and Chadwick were a mere half second apart, with Emery a second back but over two seconds clear of the chasing pack as Pennington’s race pace was some way off his qualifying performance.
Things stabilised after the initial sprint, and it was clear Job was controlling the pace. As the laps started to run out, he increased his advantage over Chadwick to two seconds, and that wqas how they finished. Pennington fell out of the Am category lead late on as he missed his braking point at the chicane to Gareth Higgins to take the spot.
Round 7 Results
1. Sebastian Job (Red Bull Racing Esports) – 16 laps
2. Will Chadwick (Altus Esports) +2.016
3. Matt Emery (Independent) +5.492
For the second event in a row, Jack Sedgwick’s sixth place finish put him on reversed-grid pole. with Chadwick and Job alongside each other on the third row, and it was a familiar result all round.
After getting a decent start, Job found his progress blocked by Emery ahead and ran out wide as the pack entered Cascades. That allowed Charles Rainford up on the inside and, as the cars came into Island, Job ended up being sent to the infield and down to 20th place – almost a carbon copy of Snetterton.
The chaos behind him left Chadwick had an open goal to close up on his championship rival, but his progress was hampered first by Emery, and then Haliburton. After an eight-minute chase to catch the latter, Chadwick got himself onto the podium when Haliburton made a mistake at the hairpin.
Sedgwick and Moone were well clear though, and provided an entertaining battle right through to the last lap when Sedgwick was finally able to build a one-second gap and take the win.
The result mean Job still leads the way from Chadwick, but his advantage has been trimmed to 12 points.
Round 8 Results
1. Jack Sedgwick (Inex Racing) – 16 laps
2. Jamie Moone (Team75 Bernhard) +1.306
3. Will Chadwick (Altus Esports) +2.282
Chaos at Macau for FIA Esports WTCR
After a chaotic opening two rounds, which saw race winner Jack Keithley belatedly stripped of his Nürburgring victory and handed a qualifying ban for Spa, the FIA Esports WTCR championship visited one of the craziest venues of all for its third event: Macau.
Championship leader Bence Banki was the main beneficiary of that Nürburgring decision, and doubled down on that by taking pole position by just under four hundredths from Petr Pliska and Gianmarco Fiduci.
While the front five got away cleanly, the race wasn’t even two corners old before the first major incident. Reigning champion Gergo Baldi seemed to trip over Juan Manuel Gomez before being tipped into a spin by his own team-mate Martin Barna. Aside from the effects on Baldi’s title hopes, the collision affected close to half the field.
That allowed the front three to streak clear, and they ran nose-to-tail for most of the race. However, with two laps left to run, Pliska finally made the move he’d been threatening and sent it around the outside at Lisboa. A brief side-by-side ensued, with Banki catching the outside wall in turn four and allowing Pliska and the lurking Fiduci to both pass.
With little opportunity to fight back, that would be how the top three finished, well clear of Daniel Nagy in fourth and Gomez in fifth.
Round 5 Results
1. Petr Pliska (Fordzilla) – Cupra Leon – 12 laps
2. Gianmarco Fiduci (Veloce) – Cupra Leon +0.421
3. Bence Banki (Dorr Esports) – Audi RS3 +0.982
The top ten from race one was reversed on the grid for race two, and more drama was to be expected. Sure enough there was another major crash on lap one, this time at the very first turn, with Leandro Werle’s Civic coming off worst but over a dozen cars involved.
A messy opening lap saw polesitter Axel Vermeylen, Barna, Fiduci, and Adam Pinczes all ending up in the barriers or the back of other cars, as Gomez and Florian Hasse quietly made their way up to second and fourth respectively. Barna came off best of it, assuming the lead.
There was more carnage behind, though, as James Montgomery tripped over Max Pfeifer at the hairpin and briefly blocked the entire track. That gave the front ten cars a huge gap, but the race was between Barna and Gomez.
It all came down to another late-race move, with Gomez making a last-moment lunge up the inside at Lisboa and making it stick. Barna, briefly baulked, lost momentum up the hill and saw both Ottaviani and Hasse overtake to round out the podium.
Round 6 Results
1. Juan Manuel Gomez (Forzilla) – Audi RS3 – 20 laps
2. Alessandro Ottaviani (Veloce) – Cupra Leon +1.100
3. Florian Hasse (Dorr) – Cupra Leon +1.710
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