until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Michi Hoyer made it two wins from two races with a dominant display in the second round of the Formula SimRacing World Championship.
In the qualifying session around the Estoril circuit Hoyer took pole position by 0.221s ahead of next fastest driver David Mroczek.
But Mroczek didn’t start the race from second though due to a four-place grid penalty carried over from the previous round.
Therefore Alex Siebel inherited second on the starting grid with Janos Bracsok third, while the 2020 champion Jernej Simoncic was the eighth fastest in qualifying.
A lot of qualifying was rendered irrelevant though as there were multiple crashes in the opening few corners, kicked off as Janos Bracsok in third was rear-ended by Adam Maguire under braking for Turn 1.
That started a concertina effect with multiple other crashes, a notable victim being the season-opener runner-up Liam de Waal.
Hoyer and Siebel got through unscathed while Simoncic benefitted hugely from the crashes as he moved up to third place by the end of the first lap.
For the rest of the race Hoyer was uncontested for the victory and won with a margin of eight seconds over his nearest rival.
The small fuel tank each car has and the requirement to use at least two sets of hard compound tyres meant most drivers pitted three times, but Simoncic opted for a four-stop approach.
When everyone still had one pitstop left to go he was down in fifth place, but the extra stop meant he was able to short fill and the lap times he set on minimal fuel and with fresh soft tyres and in clear air were good enough for him to exit the pits for the final time in second place.
Last season’s runner-up Petar Brljak passed Siebel in the closing stages of the race to cross the line in third for his first podium result this year.
Despite being on the harder tyres, Siebel kept track position in front of Robin Pansar to claim fourth place while Dennis Jordan, who elected to qualify on the hard tyres and so started from 19th, avoided the first lap drama to finish the race in sixth place.
A 100% win record for Hoyer means he has the maximum 50 championship points to his name, with his Burst Simplexity Esport team-mate Simoncic his closest challenger and 17 points behind him.
