Lucas Blakeley and Jarno Opmeer made waves at the 2023 Race of Champions, knocking out F1 champion duo Mika Hakkinen and Valtteri Bottas!

Blakeley and Opmeer, who booked their place in the Nations Cup during Friday’s eROC event, defeated Bottas and Hakkinen over four heats of on-track driving, advancing to the next round of the competition.

Blakeley was first up, beating Bottas, before Opmeer faced off against Hakkinen. The Dutchman looked to have won his heat against fellow two-time champion Hakkinen, but a jump-start gave the point to the Finnish drivers instead, levelling the score 1-1.

Team eROC looked to be heading home, as Opmeer was beaten by Bottas in the third heat. However, the best-of-four format meant that Blakeley could still put the team through – if he beat Hakkinen by a big margin. As a tie-breaker, the cumulative lap times of all four heats are combined, and going into the final heat, Team eROC trailed by just half a second.

Blakeley duly blitzed the course, and crossed the line well ahead of Hakkinen to claim an unprecedented win for the Esports stars. The achievement saw them through to the quarter finals, where they encountered the formidable Team Germany, in a rematch of last year’s first round.

Back in 2022, Blakeley got the best possible start, unseating Sebastian Vettel in the first heat, before a spirited comeback for Germany saw them prevail. This year was to be different, with Vettel besting Blakeley, and Mick Schumacher beating Opmeer in their first head-to-head. This put Team eROC on the back foot, and they were knocked out – but losing to opponents of such high quality is not something to be sniffed at!

F1 Esports’ two most recent champions can take pride in their truly remarkable achievement, proving beyond doubt that sim racers can cut it on track.

On top of the world! 2022 F1 Esports Series Champion Lucas Blakeley kicked off his 2023 in stunning form on Friday morning, claiming the eROC title at the 2023 Race of Champions in Pite Havsbad, Sweden.

Blakeley defeated fellow F1 Esports contenders Jarno Opmeer and Michael Romanidis during the round-robin tournament, as well as sim racer Martin Palm. Romanidis shone in the sim racing segment, but dropped points in the physical aspect, and so Blakeley and Opmeer – who were judged to have performed perfect laps – made it through to the final.

It was here where Blakeley took control, besting Opmeer in the Polaris RZR on the snow and ice by more than four seconds. They then switched to the simulator, where two slender victories for the Scot gave him the overall title. Check out the full stream replay below!

The unique event sees megastars from sim racing compete against one another on simulator rigs, before each doing a flying lap on the snowy track – the very same one as used on the sims.

The flying laps are scored by a panel of experts, and these scores mix with their sim racing points tallies to form a final leaderboard. The top two drivers face one another in the final, with the third and fourth competing for best-of-the-rest honours.

It is this final and third-place playoff that really sees the event come to life, with the drivers fighting it out on the sims, before racing on-track just seconds later. It showcases that the gap from digital to physical racing is one that can be bridged, with the twin-ring circuit layout providing an intense showdown.

Top two drivers Blakeley and Opmeer also get the honour of representing Team eROC in the Nations Cup, where they will face off against the mighty Team Finland… made up of two-time World Champion Mika Hakkinen, and 10-time race-winner Valtteri Bottas!

It should be noted that Blakeley famously took a victory from Sebastian Vettel in the 2022 event, and both have proven themselves as F1 Esports champions, as well as capable on-track racers. Tune in on Sunday, January 29, to see how they get on!

Photo via Race of Champions.

Points leader Lucas Blakeley took his second win on the bounce on Thursday night, after a masterful display around the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy.

Fresh off the back of winning the season opener on Wednesday night around Bahrain’s digital incarnation, the Scot had to fend off intense pressure yet again to secure victory. Pushed all the way to the line by Red Bull Racing Esports’ Marcel Kiefer, Blakeley dug deep and never gave the German the opportunity.

Winning the first two races of the season is no small achievement. Brendon Leigh did it in 2018, and David Tonizza repeated the feat in 2019. With both drivers scooping that year’s drivers’ title, Blakeley is firmly cemented as this year’s red-hot favourite, already boasting a 29-point lead after two races.

Onetime race leader Kiefer put up a fight and did well to finish second, leading home team mate Frede Rasmussen for a double-Red Bull podium; the Dane recovering brilliantly after a crash in qualifying.

WEDNESDAY’S ACTION

Wednesday’s race in Bahrain saw Blakeley and team mate Bari Boroumand work in unison, combining to confound Opmeer who ran on his own up front. It culminated in McLaren Shadow’s first-ever double-podium in F1 Esports, with Boroumand taking third behind Blakeley and Opmeer.

Click here for a full rundown of Wednesday’s action.

HAAS’T AND FURIOUS

Qualifying in Imola saw Pro Exhibition champion Thomas Ronhaar grab his first ever pole position, backing up the incredible one-lap pace seen on Wednesday, when he put it P2 on the grid. And while new faces flourished, old friends had a hard time of it.

2021 Imola poleman Josh Idowu bowed out in Q1, while home soil racers Brendon Leigh and David Tonizza – last year’s winner – were just P12 and P15 in qualifying respectively.

Kiefer secured the other spot on the front row, with Blakeley third, and the sister Haas of Matthijs van Erven fourth. Rasmussen crashed out in the latter stages of Q3 and wound up P9, sharing the fifth row of the grid with Opmeer.

EYES DOWN IMOLA

Kiefer got the better getaway of the two at the front, and powered into the lead by Tamburello, getting past Ronhaar and bringing Blakeley with him, into P2.

A fairly dramatic first lap saw Opmeer tagged from behind, dropping to near the back and ruining any notions of a fightback to the podium. Much like in Wednesday’s race, the first half of the race was tame, but as soon as the pit stops began – with Rasmussen ditching his Hard tyres on Lap 14 – everything changed.

A canny undercut strategy from the Dane paid off brilliantly, as he emerged right behind team mate Kiefer one lap later when he pitted. When leading trio Blakeley, Ronhaar and Nicolas Longuet pitted a subsequent lap after that, Rasmussen found himself shuffled up to a net third place, jumping four cars.

There was plenty of jockeying for position, with Ronhaar getting Dani Moreno for P4 in the last few laps, finishing fourth behind Blakeley, Kiefer, and Rasmussen.

Moreno came home fifth, ahead of van Erven, Boroumand and a resurgent Tonizza who turned his P15 qualifying into eighth place come the flag. Simon Weigang took ninth, with Alvaro Carreton P10 rounding off the points. Opmeer just missed out in P11, after making up several places following his pit stop.

UP NEXT

Brendon Leigh has done in three times. Tonizza, Opmeer, and Dani Bereznay, once each. And now Blakeley joins the group of back-to-back winners in F1 Esports. Nobody has ever won three in-a-row… can the speedy Scot become the first?

That question and many more will be answered on Friday evening, as we go racing once more, around Silverstone! Join us for qualifying from 1430 UTC, with the race stream beginning at 1830 UTC.

New McLaren Shadow signing Lucas Blakeley triumphed on Wednesday night, taking the first race win in the 2022 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship, presented by Aramco.

Starting on pole, the Scot led away confidently at the start, but had to overhaul reigning champion Jarno Opmeer in order to take victory. In a perfectly-orchestrated move, he and McLaren Shadow team mate Bari Boroumand got past Opmeer’s Mercedes coming down the main straight on Lap 21.

The new 50% race distance added a new element of strategy to the racing, with Opmeer running late into the race on the hard tyres to perform an overcut. He emerged comfortably ahead of Boromound and Blakeley, who lost ground after an intense scrap with Frede Rasmussen, and new Haas signing Thomas Ronhaar.

Pro Exhibition champion Ronhaar was enjoying an amazing debut, after qualifying second and running in the top five for most of the race. But when the four-car melee ensued, he picked up damage and plummeted down the order, eventually retiring.

Opmeer led going into the latter stages of the race, but the aforementioned McLaren Shadow pincer movement on lap 21 dropped his medal status from gold to bronze. Mercedes’ leading man did bite back on the final lap, deposing Boroumand at Turn 1 to snatch back second, but Blakeley was a step too far, and he ended as the filling in a Papaya sandwich.

Behind the leading trio came a resurgent Simon Weigang, who on his Aston Martin debut more than doubled his 2021 points tally. Dani Moreno followed in fifth, followed by Sebastian Job, Brendon Leigh, Nicolas Longuet and Josh Idowu, the latter two of whom made their first starts for Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri respectively.

This is the fresh text I’ve gone with:

Frede Rasmussen was originally classified in P10, picking up two penalties; one for corner cutting in-game, and another from the stewards for causing contact with Ronhaar. However the Dane was promoted to P8 after the in-game reprimand was rescinded, giving him four points. Longuet and Idowu nudged down to P9 and P10 respectively to complete the points.

The result puts McLaren Shadow firmly in command of the team standings after the first race, with Blakeley repeating his maiden victory in Bahrain 12 months prior.

Racing resumes on Thursday evening, as the 2022 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship heads to Imola! Catch the qualifying stream at 1430 UTC on Twitch and YouTube, with the race stream kicking off from 1830 UTC on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and on TV.

Lucas Blakeley pulled off a stunning achievement in Saturday’s Race of Nations Cup, besting four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel in their head-to-head race!

Facing off in the first heat at the snow and ice circuit in Pire Havsbad, Sweden, Blakeley crossed the line 0.080s ahead of Vettel in the closest finish of the day. Driving the all-electric World RX2e car on the special double-looped circuit, Blakeley clocked a time of in 1:02.281, less than a tenth ahead of Vettel.

Blakeley and team mate Jarno Opmeer formed Team eROC All Stars, and were drawn against the fearsome Team Germany line-up of Vettel and Schumacher. They qualified for the special event by taking the top two spots in Friday’s eROC World Final, which you can learn all about here.

Vettel and Schumacher would go on to win the next two heats and progress to the next round, but it was nonetheless an incredible achievement, and proof if it need be that sim racers are just that – racers!

The achievement is all the more impressive when you consider Blakeley’s background in racing, or lack thereof. Before the event, he had just 20 minutes of experience, owing to a Porsche driving experience at Silverstone. You’d never know it though, judging by the way he expertly flicked the car around on the tricky surface. Check out the lap below:

It’s reminiscent of Enzo Bonito’s excellent performance at the 2019 Race of Champions in Mexico, where he beat Lucas di Grassi and Ryan Hunter-Reay on consecutive days.

Blakeley recently announced his departure from Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Esports Team, but with a performance like this, the queue to sign him up in 2022 is sure to be a long one.

Reigning F1 Esports Series Champion Jarno Opmeer is no stranger to silverware, and on Friday he added another accolade to his growing trophy cabinet – eROC World Champion!

The Dutchman prevailed over F1 Esports rival Lucas Blakeley at the special event held in Sweden on Friday February 4, mixing simulator driving with real-world experience on the snow and ice track in Pite Havsbad.

Starting off driving the simulator, Opmeer, Blakeley, and fellow finalist James Baldwin and Martin Palm all faced off against one another, scoring points in a round-robin tournament. Each driver faced the other three once, in a best-of-three showdown around a digital incarnation of the snowy twin-ring circuit. Interspersing this was footage from Thursday, where all four drivers attacked the real circuit outside in a Polaris PRO XP.

Baldwin brushed the snow banks and was slowest with a 1:50.296, followed by Palm who clocked at 1:48.131. Opmeer was second, with a superb 1:47.452, but the star of the show was Blakeley, who, despite having hardly any physical track driving experience, went fastest of all with a 1:47.428.

That put the pair almost level going into the final round of sim driving, and it was a direct final between the two. Opmeer came out on top in two races by the merest of margins, pipping Blakeley by just 0.073s in the first heat, and just over a tenth in the second to become champion!

Check out the full replay of the event below.

MIXING WITH ROYALTY

As the top two eROC finalists, Opmeer and Blakeley both get a very, very special prize. They will be competing in Saturday’s ROC Nations Cup, and will face against Team Germany in their first fight. That’s right – none other than Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher!

Both Opmeer and Blakeley will have to use all their knowledge of the track to get up to speed and face off against these two giants of motorsport. One thing is for certain though – it’s an experience neither of them will ever forget!

Opmeer summed it up best, stating “It’s not gonna be easy, we’ll need a few practice laps for sure!”

Keep your eyes on social and tune in to see how the duo get on as they mix it on the world stage for the first time. For full broadcast details, check out the Race of Champions website. Good luck to our drivers!

Cover image via Race of Champions.

They were the surprise package of the 2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship presented by Aramco – but after two and a half years together, Lucas Blakeley announces he will be parting ways with Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team.

The news comes as a surprise to many, after a successful season together in 2021 which saw the duo accrue two victories, en route to third in both the driver and team standings.

Sharing the news via social media, Blakeley said:

“Today, I announce that I’m leaving Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team after two and a half years.

“I want to take a moment to thank the team for putting their faith in me during this time, it’s thanks to them that I got the chance to compete in F1 Esports and do what I love competitively. For that, I will be forever grateful.”

Blakeley has not yet made his future plans known to the public, although he signed off the message with a cryptic hint that he may know his whereabouts later this year:

“This chapter has closed, time to start writing the next…”

From Draftee To Dark Horse

Blakeley’s journey has been a joyous one to follow. Looked over for a seat in 2018, he got a second chance in 2019 when he attended what was then known as the Pro Draft. Scooped up by the team, known at the time as BWT Racing Point F1 Esports Team, the young Scot was reduced to tears at his selection.

With F1 Esports stalwart Marcel Kiefer, and sim racing authority Daniele Haddad as team mates, Blakeley only got four races on track in that year’s championship.

That was more than enough. In only his second race, he commanded an ultra-impressive second-place finish at the Suzuka race, losing out only to race winner Frede Rasmussen.

The 2020 season came and went in a blur, and Blakeley and Racing Point were left behind. But 2021 was to be a different story. First race, first victory. In a taste of what was to come, Blakeley fought tooth and nail with Nicolas Longuet and Alvaro Carreton for the first win of the season in Bahrain. A complete changing of the guard, a breathless final lap battle, and a first ever victory for the elated Scot.

The season blossomed into the most competitive so far, and Blakeley took another victory at Portimao, and became championship leader after he showed more consistency than rivals Jarno Opmeer and Rasmussen. Though he eventually missed out on the crown, the quantum leap in terms of performance means that wherever he ends up in 2022, he’s sure to impress!

We don’t yet know who will be on the grid in the 2022 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship, but thanks to Challengers, we’re getting slightly closer! Join us for Event 2 of the F1 Esports Challengers, streaming live on Twitch from 1-3 February at 19:30 GMT. We might just unearth our next superstar…

Nine races down, three to go. The fourth and final round of the 2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship, presented by Aramco, promises to be the most explosive Grand Final in our five-year tenure.

Both championships are completely wide open, we have a brand new track joining the calendar, and we’re barely a week from Christmas. But only one can receive the best gift of all – the gift of victory…

WHERE WE DROPPING, BOYS?

The final leg of the F1 Esports tour in 2021 sees us touch down at the legendary Autodromo Nationale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, AKA, Imola. Home of two insane Emilia Romagna Grands Prix in 2020-21, it became part of F1 2021 earlier this year in a free content update. And that of course means we get to race there for the very first time! Doubtless, all of our drivers will have been pumping in hundreds if not thousands of laps over the last couple of months to get to grips with the venue’s swerves and kerbs.

From there, it’s a hop across the Atlantic to Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and finally down to Sau Paulo’s Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. That’s a lot of Autodromos… and racing legends. Fitting then, that we should crown another legend at one of these three circuits.

THE CONTENDERS

With 78 points on the table, the top six drivers in the standings are mathematically capable of winning the drivers’ title – but things would have to go VERY much their way for that to happen! Realistically, it’s a three-way fight between our runaway leaders: Jarno Opmeer (140 points), Lucas Blakeley (135 points), and Frede Rasmussen (132 points).

All three drivers have been remarkable in their consistency in 2021, with the top two scoring in every single round, and Rasmussen only missing out in China. Between them, the trio have hoovered up all but two victories this year.

In the teams’ title, it’s a two-horse race between… *checks notes* Mercedes and Red Bull. Huh. This could be interesting! Mercedes hold the lead, with 222 points over Red Bull’s 199. But that 23-point gap could come down just as easily as it could extend, with 132 points all to play for over the next three races. Red Bull are looking to take the teams’ championship for the third year in a row, while Mercedes are looking to recapture it, having been trophy-less since 2018.

OPMEER IN CHARGE

With three races in quick succession, Opmeer’s slender lead doesn’t count for all that much – but being in the lead and reigning champion means the target on his back is twice as big as anyone else’s.

To put simply it using a terrible, made-up word, Opmeer is the winningest driver of 2021, with three victories in China, Austria, and the USA. However, he had a strangely low-key Event 3, scoring P7 and P8 finishes before his win in the final race of the event. Still, Opmeer knows what it takes to win better than any other driver, and with the backdrop of the Mercedes Esports facility, he’ll have all the motivation he needs to take the crown for himself and his team.

Emilia-Romagna’s Imola is a new addition to F1 2021, so of course it didn’t feature in last year’s championship. The other two races in Mexico and Brazil did though, with Opmeer taking his fourth and final win of the season in the former. The latter, home of this year’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, was one to forget for all three of our championship contenders however – only Opmeer registered points, and that was for P7! If he can gain confidence on this supposed bogey track, he may be able to gain the upper hand.

BLAKELEY ON THE WARPATH

Lucas Blakeley, and his 2021 pace, could be easily summed up in one phrase: Pleasant surprise. Perhaps the chattiest F1 Esports driver on the grid, Blakeley does his talking both on and off the track. And there’s been plenty of airtime for him – his two wins, five podiums and sole pole position have kept him at the sharp end for the duration.

Boasting by far the best average finishing position, Blakeley has not finished outside the top six all season. Contrast that with his 2020 form, where P6 was his best finish overall, and one of just three points finishes, and it’s not hard to see why Blakeley earns the accolade of most improved driver.

History isn’t on the side of the Scottish Sensation, with a trio of zeroes in last year’s Grand Final. But that was the Lucas of old. The new-and-improved green-bedecked driver is very much in it to win it. Just five points behind the reigning champion, it is almost too close to call.

RED BULL, DARK HORSE

The nearly-man of F1 Esports, Frede Rasmussen is third in the standings, but with just eight points separating him from the lead, there is absolutely no discounting him. Currently on a hot streak of four podiums in a row – including three consecutive third places, Rasmussen epitomises control and consistency. What he’s missed so far, is a killer instinct.

Never one to throw one down the inside, Rasmussen needs to get his elbows out in this final trio of races to stand a chance. Just two things are keeping Rasmussen out of the lead of the championship: A bad strategy gamble in the wet-dry Chinese Grand Prix in Round 2, and being clobbered from behind on the final lap in Monza’s Round 5 race.

Rasmussen’s slow start has held him back, but his freight train momentum could see him arrive at the Grand Final in imperious form. And after finishing second in the last TWO seasons of F1 Esports, surely the allure of the drivers’ crown is one that could spur him on to victory.

WHERE DO I WATCH?

Glad you asked! As ever we’ve got two days of action, from December 15-16. We’re live from 15:30 UTC for the qualifying stream on Twitch and YouTube, with Facebook adding into the mix for the race stream at 19:30, on both days. We’ll see you there!

Mercedes driver Jarno Opmeer struck back in Round 9 to claim his third win in 2021 and re-take the lead of the drivers’ championship. After an off-key Wednesday in the 2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship presented by Aramco, he mustered his title-winning form of last year as Circuit of the Americas made its return to the calendar.

WEDNESDAY’S ACTION

Opmeer’s win came at the right time. Being reigning champion carries a heavy burden – finishing seventh and sixth in the previous two races is considered a below-par performance.

The first race of the event in Portimao saw Lucas Blakeley absolutely run away with the win, creating a huge gap to those behind him and crossing the line ahead of the midfield melee behind to score his second win of 2021.

Meanwhile in Zandvoort, it was Mercedes man Dani Moreno who prevailed, taking his maiden win in F1 Esports and becoming the 12^th different driver to stand atop the podium

You can catch up on all of Wednesday’s goings-on here, and see all the best bits from Round 7 and Round 8.

THE RETURN TO COTA

Absent from the 2020 calendar, Circuit of the Americas returns for this season. The scene of Brendon Leigh’s 2018 title win, it’s got a decent amount of history in F1 Esports, and the drivers all love it.

That much was proved in qualifying, with just ONE THOUSANDTH of a second splitting the top two. Nicolas Longuet was the man who put it into P1, snatching pole for the first time since Round 1, ahead of Bari Boroumand.

Off the line, Longuet was bested by his McLaren rival, and Boroumand took the lead on his soft tyres, with the majority of the field starting on medium rubber. He was soon joined by fellow soft rubber-user Brendon Leigh, who started P10 but made it up to second by the start of Lap 4.

However, the cracking start was too good to be true for the pair, who were Mercedes stablemates in 2020. Longuet, whom Leigh had passed for second, soon re-passed him for second as Lap 7 came around, just before the pit stop phase came into play.

Leading trio Boroumand, Longuet and Leigh came in on Lap 9, as did the majority of the pack, leaving David Tonizza to tour in the lead briefly.

Armed with fresh medium tyres, Frede Rasmussen was the man on the move, and he made a stupendous double-overtake on Lap 10 to get past both Brendon Leigh and Lucas Blakelely, and up into a net fourth place.

Rasmussen’s ascendency was mirrored by Boroumand, who soon found himself going backwards on the unfancied soft-medium strategy. With no answer to the superior grip of the soft tyres, Boroumand slipped from the net lead of the race as Jarno Opmeer got by on Lap 11, swiftly followed by Longuet just a couple of laps later.

Lap 15 rolled around and Rasmussen further relegated Boroumand to fourth, setting up the podium places for a showdown sprint to the flag. Longuet was content to sit behind Opmeer for the time being, waiting to deploy the now-commonplace last-lap overtake which has been so effective in 2021. Longuet though couldn’t wait, and excitement got the better of him, jumping past Opmeer on the penultimate lap, 19.

This was to be his undoing, and after a scruffy first sector, he unwittingly let both Opmeer and Rasmussen past in the hopes of gaining DRS. But he mis-timed the move, and was powerless to catch them on the back straight.

Opmeer brought it home for his third win of 2021, with Rasmussen taking a third consecutive second-placed finish. Longuet came home a devastating third, with Boroumand holding firm in fourth despite his tyre disadvantage. Tonizza, Blakeley, Moreno, Alvaro Carreton, Marcel Kiefer and Sebastian Job completed the points.

WHERE DO WE STAND?

Opmeer heads the drivers’ standings with 140 points, but is just five points ahead of nearest rival Blakeley, who has 135. Rasmussen is then a further three behind, meaning the top three are separated by just eight points! Dani Moreno (82) and Bari Boroumand (80) are further down the road in the battle for fourth, with Marcel Kiefer on 67.

In the teams’ standings, Mercedes have a haul of 222 points giving them a nice buffer to Red Bull, who are on 199. Aston Martin (144) and Alpine (107) are the other two teams to break into triple-figures, with McLaren and FDA fighting for fifth, on 80 and 78 points respectively.

NEXT UP: THE GRAND FINAL!

Unbelievably, we’re almost at journey’s end already! The final event is just a few weeks away, taking place after the 2021 F1 season. We’ll be racing around Imola, Mexico City and Interlagos, celebrating raw speed with twisty intrigue in equal measure. Join us for qualifying streams from 15:30 UTC, and race streams from 19:30 on December 15-16, as we crown our champions! Who will be victorious? Let us know on social, by getting involved with the conversation using #F1Esports.

Lucas Blakeley wrestled back the lead of the drivers’ championship on Wednesday night, as the thrilling 2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship presented by Aramco resumed.

The Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Esports ace claimed a truly dominant lights-to-flag win as the series made its inaugural visit to Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal. He then followed it up with another podium at the second race of the evening around Zandvoort – but it was Mercedes man Dani Moreno who perfected the twists of the Dutch location to take his very first win in the series.

Here’s what went down in each race.

PORTI-WOW

The gaps in F1 Esports are miniscule. In fact, qualifying for Round 7 in Portugal saw one of the smallest margins ever in qualifying, with the top seven split by half a tenth (0.050s)! However it was Blakeley who had the quickest time, and he put it to good use.

In truth, no one came close to matching his pace in Portimao. After a surging start, he flew off into the distance, building up a lead of over four seconds at one point. That might sound fairly normal in Formula 1, but in F1 Esports, but as commentator Alex Jacques aptly put it, “in real terms, that’s an hour!”

This was a race of two strategies. Blakeley started on the softs, and ended on the mediums. Rasmussen though chose the alternate, and pitted for soft tyres on Lap 13, coming out right between the Mercedes duo of Moreno and Jarno Opmeer.

Pitting earlier, Rasmussen’s pace was electrifying. After emerging seventh, he sliced past Moreno, Joni Tormala, David Tonizza and Fabrizio Donoso in five laps to take second. Blakeley though was too far ahead to catch.

Blakeley led home Rasmussen, Donoso, and Dani Moreno, who got past both Joni Tormala and David Tonizza on the final lap, the unfortunate duo finishing P5 and P6 respectively. Reigning champion Opmeer made up four places from his P11 qualifying performance, taking seventh. Michael Romanidis, Marcel Kiefer and Bari Boroumand completed the points.

GEN ZANDVOORT

Hopes of home heroics were dashed in qualifying, as Opmeer could only manage P7. However a rejuvenated Boroumand claimed his second pole of the season, and led away from pole position.

Despite Zandvoort’s narrow and precise nature, poleman Boroumand and challenger Rasmussen ran the entire first sector side-by-side, before the Dane eventually emerged ahead.

It wasn’t long before pit stops shuffled the deck, with Dani Moreno the first of a five-man group to stop just five laps into the race. Rasmussen followed suit the following lap, and was able to emerge just ahead of Moreno, who showed the awesome power of the undercut.

Blakeley though started on the medium tyres, in contrast to the other leaders, and came out in a net fifth position, running the much less durable soft tyre. After a pit stop for Patrik Sipos and sneaking past Boroumand, he moved up into third place on Lap 11.

Rasmussen’s tenure in the lead came to an end on Lap 19, when Moreno used the final corner baking and a DRS boost to slingshot his way into the lead, and there he stayed until the chequered flag on Lap 25.  Moreno, Rasmussen, Blakeley and Boroumand headed the points-scorers, with the most recent two champions – Tonizza and Opmeer – next up. Tormala added to his earlier points with P7, ahead of Sipos, who opened his account. Brendon Leigh and Kiefer rounded out the top 10.

Blakeley now leads the drivers’ championship with 127 points, leading Opmeer on 115, and Rasmussen just a single point back on 114. Mercedes break away from Red Bull in the teams’ championship, on 191 points to 179.

COMING UP NEXT

We’re not done yet, as there’s still the third and final race of this event to run! The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas is our canvas, and we’ll be painting a clearer picture of the championship with another frantic race.

Can Lucas Blakelely hold on, or will Jarno Opmeer and Frede Rasmussen be able to close the gap? Tune in to qualifying from 15:30 UTC, and the race from 19:30 UTC to find out!