The third instalment of the F1 Esports Series China Championship saw a brand-new champion crowned, with Xing Sicheng claiming his first title!

After 12 rounds of intense action, Xing, racing for TSW, clinched the crown by a serious margin over reigning champion Yuan Yifan. Xing’s team mate Wang Hao claimed third place overall, with inaugural series champion Tang Tianyu just behind in fourth.

Broadcast from the Great Sports TV studios to an audience of 8.4 million viewers across TV and digital platforms, the Grand Final included an element of surprise, with the final race circuit being announced during the event, instead of being announced before.

The Grand Final of the F1 Esports Series China Championship 2021 Season took place on December 26, 2021. The original plan of a live Grand Final event with fans and drivers in attendance was disrupted by the recent COVID-19 breakouts in different Chinese cities, and instead the Grand Final was aired from the Studio of Great Sports TV. Across the whole season, the China Championship achieved an incredible 91.7m views across both TV and digital platforms.

As the top two in the championship, both Xing and Yuan will be invited to participate in the 2022 F1 Esports Series Pro Exhibition  The Pro Exhibition will put the best sim-racers to have come through the official F1 Esports Series qualification routes through a series of assessments, providing drivers with a platform to showcase their skills to the 10 official F1 Esports Teams before they pick their rosters for the 2022 Pro Championship season.

Congratulations to Xing – our third different champion in three years of the F1 Esports Series China Championship!

Yuan Yifan was confirmed on Sunday as the 2020 F1 Esports China driver champion, with rival team BT winning the team championship after an intense final pair of races.

The final round of the ultra-competitive 2020 F1 Esports China Championship took place over the weekend of January 16-17 in Shanghai, host city of the Chinese Grand Prix. Juss Intellisports once again ran the event, hosted at the stunning Shanghai Pudong Media Centre.

The event included two crucial championship Pro League races around Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and Yas Marina Circuit, determining once and for all who would be crowned champion.

Yifan had already clinched the driver championship earlier in the season, however, the team’s championship had not yet been concluded. 2019 champion Tang Tianyu’s BT team led Yifan’s LHR team by 50 points coming into the final rounds of the season. It was an amazing achievement then, for LHR to close the gap by 38 points after the first day of proceedings.

Reacting to this, Tianyu made adjustments to his rig going into the final day, and it paid off, as he clinched pole position in the dying embers of qualifying. However Yifan was able to overpower him at the start and take the lead. Fighting closely, Yifan defended from Tianyu until Lap 12 of the final race, when his defence was stretched, and both drivers went wide. It let Tianyu’s team mate Hao Wang through into the lead, and so BT claimed the team’s title.

“Our team’s only chance to win the title is to finish in the first and second, for both drivers. “We had to take the risk, or we are just going in to lose”, said Yifan, accepting defeat.

Both Yuan Yifan and Tang Tianyu will gain a spot in the 2021 F1 Esports Pro Exhibiton for their performances in the China Champoionship, putting them in the shop window to be selected by one of the 10 official F1 Esports teams.

Formula 2 superstar Guanyu Zhou was the headline guest of the event, commentating on proceedings and also sharing his story of how sim racing helped to keep him busy and up to speed during the disruption caused by COVID-19. Zhou was the winner of the inaugural Virtual Grand Prix, held back in March 2020.

Find out more about the 2021 Virtual Grand Prix series here!