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Leading a race is a special thing indeed. The feeling of being out in front, setting the pace, is one that can make you feel on top of the world. It’s not the same as winning a race though – and leading is no guarantee of crossing the line first.
Alpine’s Nicolas Longuet found this out the hard way during our last race around COTA, when he fumbled the lead on the very last lap and wound up third. The tactical disadvantage conferred when leading on the final lap is colossal in F1 Esports, so to avoid being caught by those behind with DRS and extra energy to deploy, Longuet attempted a risky move. But as he explained post-race, it didn’t quite go to plan.
“It looks a bit strange from a third person view, but my thought process was that I had one lap fresher tyres than Jarno [Opmeer], so I expected to have a little bit of a pace advantage towards the end. I thought if I led the last lap, I would have enough ERS to defend. Crucially I made a couple of mistakes going into the start of sector 2, and I really overheated the tyres a lot, and I was just a sitting duck.
“What I tried to do was a bit cheeky; to let them pass so I could get the DRS and re-overtake them back. But it was too late, I made the wrong call. I’m pretty frustrated and I’m sorry to the team, because the race was going brilliantly until then.”
Slipping into the lead on the penultimate lap, Longuet, who scorched to a second pole of the season, was in prime position to take the win. However, with the lengthy back straight around Austin, he knew being caught with DRS was likely.
Instead, he engineered it so that he would gain the DRS on the final lap, by pulling over and letting Opmeer and Frede Rasmussen past. The prospect of a double-slipstream plus DRS assistance is a juicy one, especially when there’s a win on the line, but he missed the detection point, and ended up losing both positions without gaining DRS.
What possesses a driver to go to such lengths? Is it worth playing defensively at the risk of squandering a potential win? When you look at the track record in 2021, Longuet’s decision actually makes a lot of sense.
Longuet was a contender from the off in 2021, setting a monstrous pole position in Bahrain and looking set for victory. Enter Lucas Blakeley, who snatched the lead on the very last lap, due in no small part to a helping of DRS and ERS on the main straight. With the twisty midsection, Longuet couldn’t get close again, and almost dropped into the clutches of Alvaro Carreton in third.
Dani Moreno grabbed the net lead of the race from Frede Rasmussen on Lap 11/18, and looked steady holding station at the front until the very last lap. Rasmussen, arguably the most patient driver in F1 Esports, just bided his time, and absolutely sailed past on the final lap, sweeping round the outside with just a few corners to go. Moreno’s search for a first win continued…
In a complete role reversal, Rasmussen found himself on the defence on the final lap in Monza, and it was Moreno who piled the pressure on. With team mate Marcel Kiefer leading out front, Rasmussen’s best hope was to take second. However, he was gobbled up by Opmeer heading into the final corner on the penultimate lap, before Moreno blasted past the pair of them on the start of Lap 19. To add further insult to injury, Rasmussen was then hit from behind by David Tonizza, and plummeted down the order.
As we explored above the final lap in Austin was ultimately what undid all of Longuet’s hard work. Making his move on the penultimate lap, Longuet had to defend on the final tour, which left him vulnerable. A scruffy first sector paired with his unfortunate timing meant that he didn’t have the opportunity, and missed out on becoming the sixth different winner of the year.
Never one to shrink from a challenge, Longuet is preparing to go all-out for the final event. This includes the Brazilian Grand Prix circuit, site of his last victory in F1 Esports.
“I need even more race experience – I thought my tryes were in a better condition than they actually were. So I think the main focus for next time will be focusing on race setups so that my tyres don’t just fall off the cliff like they did.
“I’m probably even more motivated to do well at the last event. I’ve shown that I’m back with this pole position in the USA, it’s time for me to be there consistently.”
With three races remaining, Longuet is currently P7 in the standings with 57 points, 10 points behind Red Bull Racing Esports’ Marcel Kiefer. Will he ascend the ranks in our final event? Tune in to all the action on Wednesday December 15 to find out!
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.
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 12th 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.
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.
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.
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.