Satellite start with the right foot their campaign in Hypercar. Hyperion Esports pick up where they left off with a 1-2 in LMP2. Caspian Motorsport return to the grid with a win in LMGTE. FUTUR and Tomelli ERT grab wins in PRO-AM and AM
Four races in Spa-Francorchamps, four thunderstorms. If you ever find yourself in the Ardenne while EES is visiting the iconic Belgian circuit, you’d better take an umbrella with you. After a break in season 4, where all the races were held overseas, the eSport Endurance Series on rFactor 2 returned to Europe to kick off the fifth edition of the championship. A record-breaking race, with 48 cars on the grid split in 5 different standings: Hypercar, LMP2 PRO and PRO-AM, LMGTE PRO and AM. With so much to talk about, let’s try to rewind the tape and see what happened in the first 6 hours of racing.
Satellite Racing catch up Hydra Tech BSR to get maiden win, heartbreak for MUGEN
MUGEN Simracing chasing down the Hydra Tech BSR
It has been quite the debut race for Satellite Racing #11. Despite a poor qualifying, Juan Amaya and Lorenzo De Ciutiis took advantages of opportunities throughout the race and got to the top step of the Hypercar podium. But for the majority of the race, it was the Hydra Tech BSR setting the pace in the premiere class. Mika Hakimi snatched pole position in a dry qualifying and when it started raining in the formation lap he didn’t even blink. Hakimi was able to keep the lead, but ran into trouble when his stint was coming to an end. After losing control of his Toyota GR010, #10 rolled back onto the track, involving the MUGEN Simracing, which led the race for many laps as well, in an unfortunate incident. The collision put an end to their race, while Hakimi handed over the car to Aiman Haziq following some much needed repairs.
De Ciutiis and Haziq fighting under the bright lights
When the collision between the two leading cars happened, Satellite Racing #11 was way too far to be thinking about the race win. Also, Hydra Tech BSR got lucky as they were able to repair the car during a prolonged Full Course Yellow period. But when Haziq left the pits, the gap between the two went down significantly. A superb stint by De Ciutiis, united with the decision to double stint the wet tyres contrary to what Hydra Tech BSR did, put Satellite in the lead. With fresher tyres, Haziq went from being hunted to being the hunter and regained the lead when De Ciutiis made slight contact with a LMGTE, but the fight was far from being over.
De Ciutiis went wheel to wheel with Haziq on the Kemmel straight. At Les Combes the two touched and #10 found itself facing the wrong way. Hydra Tech BSR tried to close the gap to Satellite Racing once again, but there was nothing left to do. After six long hours, Satellite Racing could finally celebrate a well deserved maiden win to kick off the season in the right way. Hydra Tech BSR finished in second, while ARMS Cyrba #41 grabbed the final spot of the podium following a big comeback drive from Luca Martino and Marco Vinciullo.
Hyperion Esports set the tone in LMP2 PRO, FUTUR lead PRO-AM
Hyperion Esports closely following the Sim Freem eSports Junior Team car
They won Season 4 final round and they are back for more. Following a start in P3 and P4, the two Hyperion Esports prototypes did not have any rivals in the race. The crew that finished off the past year, formed by Tomasz Wach, Pawel Andrzejewski and Patryk Szwajkowski, grabbed the win closely followed by the Mateusz dynamic duo, Guzowski and Dabrowski. Both cars had a solid race, avoiding troubles and nailing the strategy to perfection.
But they cannot definitely sit on laurels for the remainder of the season. While many competitive LMP2 teams from last season made a move to Hypercar, including reigning champions MUGEN Simracing, the class is still filled with interesting competitors. Sim Freem eSports Junior Team are one of them. The freshly rebranded team, both in the name and livery, got pole position with Gianluca Scalvini nailing the perfect lap in qualifying. A costly accident in the second wet stint forced the team to reconsider their expectations for the inaugural race and they had to settle for a P3 that put them in a good spot for the upcoming rounds.
FUTUR grabbed the LMP2 PRO-AM win in Spa-Francorchamps
A little spice to the class might be added from a team which did not compete in PRO in the first race, but considering their dominance in PRO-AM a move to the top LMP2 category might be considered. We are talking about FUTUR here. Michal Nizio and Antti Rasi ended in P3 overall in LMP2 and the win in PRO-AM was never really in doubt. They had their scary moments though, for example when the Full Course Yellow was called out for the accident between Hakimi and Szucs. During the countdown, the Oreca #5 was hit from behind by another car, losing their rear wing and having to come in for repairs. Luckily enough for them, they had a comfortable margin over the rest of competitors. At the chequered flag, they finished with a 3-laps gap to the cars coming in 2nd and 3rd, Origin Racing #111 and Sweet Force #37.
Caspian Motorsport start off strong in LMGTE PRO, old rivals meet in AM
Your LMGTE PRO winners, Caspian Motorsport
LMGTE PRO had a similar script to what we already saw in LMP2. Caspian Motorsport took the chequered flag in first with a comfortable margin, but their road to glory has been a bit more difficult compared to Hyperion Esports. In fact, in the early stages of the race another Ferrari stole the spotlight, the #2 MUGEN Simracing driven by Christopher Kianek. The Slovakian simdriver went fastest in qualifying and led the race for a long stretch, chased down mainly by HG Esports Blue Bolt and the Rivetto Racing Team, two teams running the Corvette C8R.
During the third hour of racing, Caspian Motorsport emerged as a serious contender for the final win running an interesting strategy mainly with slick tyres for long stretches, while the majority of the field was on the rain compound. It turned out to be a successful choice, as Ahmet Demircan crossed the finish line in first. MUGEN Simracing had to settle for P2, while Into The Points Racing clinched the last podium spot despite a late accident that forced Arda Ercan to drive with a damaged car in the final minutes of the race.
Reigning LMGTE AM champions, Tomelli ERT, led the way in Spa-Francorchamps
Last, but definitely not least, GTE AM saw a close fight between the teams that were in title contention in season 4. In the end, it was the reigning champions Tomelli ERT coming up victorius. They took the lead in the final hour, as former leaders Carloni Racing Black hit trouble. Marco Lodi Rizzini had a technical issue while he was running in P1 and ended in P3. Sneaking in P2 was the MR Motorsport #71, making the best of the others’ misadventures.
If a good day starts in the morning, we are set to witness an exciting season. Following the opening round, the championship will make a return overseas, at the Virginia International Raceway. Last year that race started… Well, not in the right way. This time, we hope to have a good one in the winding American track on Saturday, 15th October.
Relive with us the 6 Hours of Spa thanks to our official broadcast!