Four different gamers have now won the first four races in the 2021 MotoGP eSport championship, including a new first-time race winner.
The varied race results mean all four winners are separated by less than 10 points at the top of the championship with half of the season completed.
Two-time champion Lorenzo ‘trast73’ Daretti, representing Yamaha, was the fastest in qualifying around a wet Sachsenring circuit, with Pramac’s Riccardo Bottaro second and 2019 champion Andrea ‘AndrewZh’ Saveri.
The defending champion and winner of the first race in the 2021 season, Honda’s Adrian Montenegro, was over half a second off the pace and started the race down in eighth.
There were multiple crashes in what was the first-ever wet race in MotoGP eSport, with the most significant involving the championship leader Daretti who was caught out by a mistake by second-placed Cristian Montenegro – the Suzuki rider having lost the rear of his bike on the kerbing at Turn 2 and fallen off.
Daretti slammed into the stray bike and fell off himself to drop down to ninth place, one position behind his championship rival Adrian Montenegro.
With Daretti out of contention it was Bottaro who took over the lead of the race but he was overtaken by Saveri on the penultimate lap of the race.
That meant Ducati rider Saveri, despite having started from pole position in both of the first two races this season, finally took his first victory in 2021. Bottaro just held on to second place as he edged out Red Bull KTM’s Jack Hammersley by 0.001s.
Both Adrian Montenegro and Daretti were able to make up three places after the latter’s crash, crossing the line in fifth and sixth respectively.
Red Bull Ring was the venue for the second of two races and Cristian Montenegro took pole position, with his older brother Adrian lining up in third and behind LCR Honda’s Piero Ricciuti.
It was a dreadful opening lap for the Montenegro brothers though as defending champion Adrian jumped the start and was given two long-lap penalties. Cristian got off the line successfully but then he braked too late for Turn 4 and handed the lead of the race to Ricciuti.
He was unable to take the place back and so Ricciuti, in only his fourth MotoGP eSport race, won and moved himself into championship contention.
In the early stages of the race Henrique ‘FooXz’ Botton was in third but lost that position to Daretti and then dropped down the order even further when trying to defend fourth place from Saveri.
Botton braked too late into Turn 3 and took himself and Saveri far wide of the apex. They dropped down to seventh and eighth initially before Botton was given a long-lap penalty following warnings from the race stewards.
All of that action meant that Adrian Montenegro, despite his two long-lap penalties, finished the race in fifth and still one place ahead of Saveri.
The bottom step of the podium was still good enough for Daretti to lead the championship with a four-point margin over Adrian Montenegro. Before both races the two were tied on points.
Also on 67 points, four behind Daretti, is Red Bull Ring race winner Ricciuti, with 2019 champion Saveri in fourth and nine points away from the top. Cristian Montenegro is fifth in the standings and 21 away from the current leader Daretti.
