until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Defending champion Jernej Simoncic further extended his Formula SimRacing championship lead with his second win this season despite contact with Dennis Jordan in the fight for first place.
The Slovenian secured pole position at the full Le Mans circuit with a margin of over a quarter of a second over Alex Siebel and four tenths to Collin Spork in third.
Most drivers elected to start the race on the hard compound tyres which meant that Spork on the soft tyres was able to take the lead of the race in the opening stages.
Unfortunate timing in the pits cost Spork first place since he left his pit box just as Carlos Martin turned into his pit area just ahead.
That meant Spork had to come to a stop, reverse and then steer around the stationary Martin and that process meant he left the pits behind Simoncic and Siebel.
In the second stint Jordan, driving for the newly rebranded Red Bull Racing Esports team after both him and team-mate Siebel joined the outfit, was in contention for the race win after undercutting most of the other frontrunners.
Both Jordan and Simoncic had stints in first place as they used the long, flat out run from the Mulsanne to Indianapolis corners to slipstream past one another.
After they made their final stops both were on the soft compound tyres and had little competition from those behind them. On lap 18 of 23 though they were running side by side from Indianapolis and then came together at the Porsche curves and both spun.
From that incident Simoncic dropped to second and behind only Siebel on the hard tyres, while Jordan initially rejoined the track in fifth but slowly lost more positions before pitting for new tyres with two laps to go.
Just three laps after he made contact with Jordan, and at the same part of the circuit, Simoncic overtook Siebel around the outside to reclaim first place.
Siebel finished in second place and ahead of Simoncic’s Burst SimPlexity Esport team-mate Michi Hoyer.
Jordan’s late race pitstop initially dropped him to 11th and outside of the points scoring positions. However a final lap crash between Petar Brljak and Spork in the fight for seventh – which caused Brljak to retire and Spork to complete the final lap without a front wing – meant Jordan crossed the finish line in ninth with Spork in 10th.
Since Simoncic has finished on the podium in all but one of the races this season, his points total is 141 which is 34 points more than his team-mate Hoyer in second.
In third and fourth in the drivers’ championship are the two Red Bull Esports drivers Siebel and Jordan.
With the Burst SimPlexity Esport drivers topping the table, the team currently leads the constructors’ championship with a margin of 63 points over Red Bull Esports.
