Jernej Simoncic all but sealed the Formula SimRacing drivers’ championship with a lights to flag victory at Suzuka in the 10th round.
The Slovenian secured pole position with his closest title rival Alex Siebel in second place.
Simoncic’s Burst team-mate Michi Hoyer lined up third on the grid with the second Red Bull Esports driver Dennis Jordan in fourth.
Simoncic kept the lead of the race and at the first pit phase he fitted a second set of softs whereas Siebel behind him went onto one of the mandatory sets of hard compound tyres.
That change in tyre compound meant the Burst SimPlexity Esport driver built up a 15 second gap over Siebel when both drivers pitted for a second time, both choosing to fit a set of hard tyres.
Over the course of those first two pit phases Hoyer had been able to jump Siebel by delaying his switch onto the hards and by pitting two laps earlier in both stints.
That meant with 12 laps to go Hoyer held second place, behind his team-mate but ahead of Siebel. However Hoyer was on a set of hard tyres while Siebel was on the softs.
On the grippier tyres Siebel was soon able to close down the five second deficit to Hoyer but he never found a way past him and into second place. As such Burst SimPlexity Esport took its second 1-2 finish this season.
Worse news for Red Bull Esports was that Jordan was forced to serve a drivethrough penalty at the end of lap three for jumping the start as his car had rolled too far forwards before the lights went out. Jordan was able to recover to eighth of the 10 finishers.
With Simoncic taking his third race win in the season and maintaining his record of finishing on the podium in all but one of the races, his championship lead over has grown to 46 points over Hoyer with a maximum of 50 available in the final two races.
Siebel is still in mathematical contention too despite dropping to third in the standings, as he is 47 points away from the top.
