Petar Brljak became the second different driver to win a Formula SimRacing World Championship round in the 2021 season, ending points leader Michi Hoyer’s 100% race win record.
A glitch on the kerbing of the final corner of the Zandvoort circuit launched Hoyer’s car up into the air during the race and forced him to retire from the net race lead.
In qualifying the Burst SimPlexity Esport driver was the fastest and a little over a tenth of a second clear of Brljak in second and the 2020 champion Jernej Simoncic in third.
There was minimal movement in the early stages of the race as Hoyer maintained track position over Brljak.
But the pair opted for different tyre strategies as Brljak fitted his first mandatory set of hard compound tyres at his first pitstop.
One lap after Hoyer had completed his second stop though he encountered the kerb glitch that caught out a number of drivers.
A total of nine drivers from the 24 car grid retired, with many going out of the race due to issues related to the final corner.
That wasn’t the only problem for the Burst Esport drivers as Simoncic entered the pits to end his first stint on the same lap as Brljak just in front of him. Unfortunately rFactor 2 had assigned both drivers the same pit box.
That meant Simoncic had to wait for Brljak’s stop to be completed before his car could be serviced despite them racing for different teams.
Those issues for the top two drivers in the points standings gave BS+Williams driver Brljak his first race win of the season.
Dawid Mroczek was 15s back for the other Burst Esport team in second place and ahead of Dennis Jordan, who crossed the line in third having started the race from seventh and on the hard tyres.
Brljak’s team-mate Muhammed Patel finished in fourth place to give the BS+Williams team, a collaboration between BS+COMPETITION and Williams Esports, a big points haul that reduces the deficit it has to the two teams ahead in the championship.
Simoncic’s fifth place scored him 10 points to put him on a total of 58, which is still 17 behind Hoyer.
After his victory Brljak moves up from fifth to third in the drivers’ championship but he is still more than a race win’s worth of points behind Hoyer.
