Wave Freem secures double win in DPi and LMP2, ELTA Customs on top of the LMGTE field for the second time in a row
The 6 Hours of Nurburgring marked the return of the eSport Endurance Series championship in Europe. Drivers were welcomed back in Germany by the freezing cold. A few minutes before the start of LMGTE qualifying a light rain started to fall on the track, but stopped soon after. Prototypes’ qualy and laps during the warmup session progressively dried the racing line and the majority of the field started on slick tyres. The following 6 hours have been rain-free but action-packed and with a thrilling finale in both LMP2 and LMGTE.
Wave Freem opens up the gap in DPi with the win, positive return for JAESA and Ground Effect
Wave Freem #1 won the 6 Hours of Nurburgring in the DPi class
Wave Freem #1 win in DPi was never in doubt for the 6 Hours of Nurburgring, starting from qualifying. Lorenzo Arisi was fastest on a drying track with a 1.43.263. Matteo Caruso on his JAESA was second, closely followed by the much-improved Carloni Racing #10 and Ground Effect #9 driven by Luis Felipe Capamadjian.
Ground Effect #9 and JAESA #20 fought hard for P2
Wave Freem started on pole, led the group for 206 of the total 209 laps completed in the race, and won with a comfortable gap. On the other side, fight for P2 has been quite interesting: even though the two cars never really met on track, JAESA #20 and Ground Effect #9 kept it close until the end, but they both ended in the position in which they started. The two entries completed the podium ahead of Pescara ATP-Autoteile #4, another car coming back after missing two round, Los Piratas and Carloni Racing. The new NoGrip Motorsport completed the class standings. Martinez and Rangel had a tough debut race but for sure had the chance to gather more data in order to be more competitive in the next rounds.
Thrilling four-way fight for P1 in LMP2
Ottaviani overtaking Smeriglio in the first few laps, Scalvini following close behind
Four cars in the space of 20 seconds with less than one hour remaining on the race clock. This sentence is the best way to sum up the 6 Hours of Nurburgring for the LMP2 class. In qualy Danilo Smeriglio (Wave Freem #47) topped the standings setting a 1.45.129, just enough to beat Ottaviani (BHK) and Scalvini (MR). Zitiello (Naja), Ricci (Wave Junior) and Stevens (Ground Effect Proto) were close behind. At the start of the race MR Motorsport took the gamble to put on their Oreca intermediate tyres along with ARMS #42 and Blue Steel #23. Laptimes immediately showed that slick tyres were the best choice, so this meant that Scalvini started to fall behind.
Wave Freem regained the lead in the pitlane
The first half of the race has been a close fight for P1 between Smeriglio and Ottaviani, with the latter managing to put the #16 ahead of the LMP2 field. Approaching the halfway mark, Wave Freem took the lead back in the pitlane with a faster stop. Meanwhile, MR Motorsport started its comeback with Stefano Conte driving #71. Despite this being its first experience on rFactor 2, the simdriver was very fast and consistent. An impressive drive from him, able to gain P2 during the fifth hour and chasing Santaguida (BHK), who was leading not too far ahead.
Ricci’s mistake gifted P1 to Vinciullo
Coming to the last hour of racing, surprisingly, it was Michele Ricci leading. Wave Freem Junior simdriver did an outstanding job, together with his teammate Alex Beggi, to drive consistently and stay away from trouble. Ricci, though, made a mistake at the end of Sector 2, spinning and gifting P1 to Marco Vinciullo (#47), who overtook Santaguida a few laps earlier. More bad news for BHK, as MR Motorsport jumped ahead of #16, and #17 as well, doing a quick splash and go in its last stop. Wave Freem #47 won the 6 Hours of Nurburgring ahead of MR Motorsport #71 and its sister car (#17). 4th place for BHK #16, still leading class standings by 2 points.
ELTA Customs does it again, as Pescara and Wave Freem struggle continues
Wave Freem #51 started on pole but was hit by issues
LMGTE was probably the most-affected class by the rain fallen in qualifying. Simdrivers had to quickly adapt to a damp and continuously evolving track. Andrea Riccelli (Wave Freem) seemed to have no issues at all in finding the right balance, posting a 1.55.901, almost one second faster than Davide Arduini (ELTA) and Stefano Zanrosso (HG eSports).
Pescara’s comeback was cut short by a connection lost
Wave Freem hit trouble at the start of the race: Riccelli had a connection/desync issue that made almost impossible to understand where his car effectively was on track. For this reason, Race Direction was forced to delay the start of the race and do an additional formation lap. This technical issue came back half an hour into the race and this time Riccelli was hit by another simdriver, who could not see where the #51 Ferrari was, and was forced to repair the car and do a driver swap, losing a lot of laps. With Wave Freem out of the contest, ELTA started to pull away from the rest of the field, with D’Alessandro (Pescara #77) and Dziuba (Drillers #87) trying a comeback.
Two in a row for ELTA Customs
Towards the halfway mark, D’Alessandro was hit by a connection lost and when he rejoined the race server, rFactor 2 fit him a set of wet tyres and, due to some well known realroad issues, he was basically driving on a wet track while everyone else was not. Drillers eSports remained the last standing contender to ELTA but a contact with a DPi during the last hour caused heavy damage to #87. From that moment onwards it was smooth sailing for Davide Occhetto and his ELTA #97, taking the chequered flag in first place. Second spot on the podium for VeM #90, with Drillers #87 in P3, just ahead of HG Esports #92 and ARPIEM Simracing #911. With Pescara and Wave Freem ending respectively in P8 and P10 and the good results from ELTA and VeM, the LMGTE championship might become more interesting than expected.
After a quick stop in Europe, the championship will make its final stop in the USA for the 1000 Miles of Sebring. Saturday 24th of April starting from 16 CEST – until then, it might be worth to take a look at the standings, as they are getting more and more interesting.
Rewatch the 6 hours of racing in Nurburgring