The Race’s third running of the All-Stars Battle, taking place at Silverstone’s National Circuit, was won by Vegas eRace winner and five-time Formula Sim Racing champion Bono Huis.
Philipp Eng, the BMW Motorsport works driver, was the top real-world driver as he finished the grand final in fifth place.
The winner of the second All-Stars Battle, Rudy van Buren, dominated the first heat, winning the 11-lap race by over three and a half seconds ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne in second.
GT Academy 2012 winner Wolfgang Reip overtook 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Nicki Thiim for third place, while Maximilian Guenther was the final driver to qualify for the grand final in fifth.
The second qualifying race was dominated by van Buren’s fellow World’s Fastest Gamer winner James Baldwin, who converted pole into victory by just over nine seconds.
Ed Jones and Eng almost instantly started fighting for second place and later Bradley Smith got involved to make it a three-way fight.
Eng re-overtook Jones for second place around Brooklands and then Smith in fourth tried to follow the BMW works driver through.
Jones didn’t anticipate Smith’s lunge to the inside of the turn and the two made contact and both spun out.
Uh oh – @Edjonesracing is going to have to go through the @jonessodaco last chance qualifier – ironic hey!
The Race All-Star Esports Battle.💻 Watch LIVE now: https://t.co/WdVqh7S2NG#TheRaceMustGoOn || #LegendsTrophy pic.twitter.com/rqjs1XEyqL
— The Race (@wearetherace) March 28, 2020
Eng ultimately finished the race in third, behind Baldwin and James Davison, who had lined up eight on the grid.
At the bottom end of the vital top-five positions, Bruno Spengler and Esteban Gutierrez made contact at the exit of the first corner, which allowed Lachlan Defrancesco into fourth and meant Gutierrez was outside of the top five.
And as Smith and Gutierrez scrapped for sixth place meant, they were unable to reel in those ahead, with Defrancesco and Spengler advancing into the final.
The third heat, which was made up entirely of sim racers, was won from the front by McLaren Shadow Project winner Kevin Siggy.
Yuri Kasdorp, who was the fastest driver from the hot lap qualifier round, proved his pace as he moved his way up to third place from 13th.
The other driver to make up plenty of ground was Erhan Jajovski. He qualified for the race in eighth but was up to fifth by the exit of the first corner.
WHAT A MOVE! @theWFGamer finalist @ErhanJajovski around the outside!
The Race All-Star Esports Battle sim racers fighting hard!💻 Watch LIVE now: https://t.co/WdVqh7S2NG#TheRaceMustGoOn || #LegendsTrophy pic.twitter.com/I7pCJykX5r
— The Race (@wearetherace) March 28, 2020
His impressive run came to a dramatic end when fighting for third with Williams Esports driver Nikodem Wisniewski.
The two made contact around Brooklands and then their wheels locked together. That sent Jajovski into the air and his car stopped in the grass on the exit of the turn. Jajovski ended the race in eighth.
Siggy won from pole with Huis second, Kasdorp third, Wisniewski fourth and Petar Brljak as the final simracer to qualify for the grand final.
The remaining real-life pros all got thrust into the last-chance qualifier round.
Like with the previous rounds the pole-sitter went on to win, and unsurprisingly that was Dani Juncadella – who had been thwarted by a technical issue in the first heat.
Jones and Charlie Eastwood started and finished the race in the final two podium spots.
Steve Alvarez Brown, known on YouTube as ‘SuperGT’, lost the opportunity to be the only YouTuber to make the final as he qualified in sixth but went off at the first corner of the first lap.
Tom Dillmann’s retirement on the second-to-last lap meant Gabby Chaves, who qualified in fifth and behind Dillmann, finished the race in fourth.
Dillmann’s early finish also meant the final spot for the grand final was inherited by Mercedes’ F1 reserve Gutierrez.
For the grand final, the Williams Esports driver Wisniewski was the fastest in qualifying and was joined on the front row by Huis.
On the fifth lap, Huis and Wisniewski made contact on entry to Luffield as Wisniewski tried to shut the door on Huis while the two were side-by-side for the lead.
That contact spun Wisniewski’s car around and sent him down to eighth. Huis meanwhile briefly fell down to second but shortly afterwards powered back past van Buren for first place.
A clash between @NikoWisniewski and @bonohuis puts @RvBuren into the lead – briefly – at The Race All-Star Esports Battle.
💻 Watch LIVE now: https://t.co/WdVqh7S2NG#TheRaceMustGoOn || #LegendsTrophy pic.twitter.com/dKLCiMRpb7
— The Race (@wearetherace) March 28, 2020
Just past the halfway mark, Siggy was blocked from sweeping around the outside of van Buren into Brooklands which resulted in the two making wheel-to-wheel contact.
Siggy came off worst as his car fishtailed and then spun around entirely, dropping him outside the top 10. Van Buren carried on in the same position, but dropped another half a second to race leader Huis.
That incident made sure of the podium order as van Buren was unable to catch up to Huis and challenge the fellow Team Redline driver for the All-Star title.
“Feels good to finally win something again, it’s been a while,” Huis said after the race. “I had good pace last week at Indy but I messed up qualifying there and then was stuck in a bit of a mess and lost out by one spot to get to the final.
“I really enjoyed this [Tatuus PM-18] car and today from the very first lap I really enjoyed the track as well, so the pace was there from the start.”
Kasdorp’s qualifying pace in both races may have been lacking but his race pace and overtaking ability were second to none as he made up four places over the course of the race to finish in third.
Baldwin kept out of trouble to cross the line in fourth, with Eng completing the top five.
Wisniewski’s spin meant he could finish no higher than sixth, as he led fellow simracer Petar Brljak.
A trio of real-world racing drivers followed, with Juncadella in eighth and just ahead of IndyCar driver Jones and Formula E driver Vandoorne.
