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Max Verstappen denied Le Mans win as REBELLION Williams Esports triumph
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen has his hopes of virtual Le Mans glory dashed in the 11th hour, as Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly claims a fighting 5th.
On the weekend of what was supposed to see the 88th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 50 cars and hundreds of drivers instead competed in the virtual realm to compete in the first ever 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual. After 24 hours of superb entertainment and quality racing, it was the REBELLION Williams Esports crew of Louis Deletraz, Raffaele Marciello, Nikodem Wisniewski and Kuba Brzezinski who won a race that went right down to the final lap.
The Team Redline car of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing's F1 driver Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Atze Kerkhof and Greger Huttu had a very strong opening few hours of the race, until the team hit problems as darkness fell. All four drivers were looking strong and Verstappen showed superb pace to take control of the race, when a technical fault brought an end to the Dutchman's digital Le Mans adventure.
As with the vast majority of the global motorsport calendar in 2020, the world’s most famous endurance race also fell victim to cancellation, but a galaxy of motorsport stars and world class sim racers from 37 different countries signed up for this unique race on the rFactor 2 platform.
In the LMP category, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing's F1 driver was joined by McLaren's Norris in the legendary sim racing outfit Team Redline and shared the grid with the likes of double F1 world champion and Le Mans winner Fernando Alonso, ex-Indycar driver Katherine Legge, Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud, 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button and Le Mans winner Sébastien Buemi.
As with the real world World Endurance Championship, the LMP grid was joined by the GTE class, composed of Aston Martins, Porsches, Corvettes and Ferraris, and it was the Porsche Esports Team of Nick Tandy, Ayhancan Güven, Joshua Rogers and Tommy Østgaard who dominated the class to win the GTE honours.
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At 3pm local time the race got underway and the first notable incident of the race involved LMP Toyota driver and 2017 Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley. The ex-Toro Rosso F1 driver suffered a spin at the Porsche curves and was forced to limp back to the pits, as up front the Bykolles racer Tom Dillman held the advantage from Kelvin Van Der Linde of E-team WRT, with Verstappen holding third place.
Verstappen's third in the LMP class became second after 15 minutes, when Dillman was handed a penalty for a jump start, promoting Van Der Linde into first place, while the Dempsey Proton Porsche of Loic Hartog led the GTE class ahead of Tandy. One notable early casualty included the car of Alonso, as a system failure led to an early bath for the double F1 world champion.
At the five hour point, the No.20 car of Verstappen, Norris, Kerkhof and Huttu held the lead, with Norris at the wheel and holding a gap in excess of 25 seconds over the 2 Seas Motorsport machine that had Devin Braune at the controls. Following driver changes for Team Redline, the 2 Seas Motorsport car with Braune at the helm assumed the lead over Greger Huttu, before a a red flag was thrown after 79 laps and six hours, as the event encountered a technical issue requiring the servers to be reset.
As night fell, it was Verstappen's turn to lead. Team Redline had been near the front for the opening six hours, with just 25 seconds separating the top six positions. After nine hours, the Dutch driver once again found himself at the top of the leaderboard. Making his 13th pit stop after 139 laps, Verstappen rejoined in third place, with Oliver Rowlands leading for 2 Seas Motorsport, as the race entered the early hours of Sunday morning.
Further down the order, Pierre Gasly's Veloce Esports team were faring well in sixth place, as the race entered its 11th hour with Formula E champion Jean Eric Vergne at the wheel.
Night time action at the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans
© rFactor 2
After 143 laps, Verstappen succumbed to a spin after an apparent glitch and a clash with another car, picking up damage and losing the lead to the Rebellion of Raffaele Marciello and dropping well down the field, a lap behind the leader.
Verstappen's misfortune would signal the end of his bid for the win. The in-game bug would send the Redline team 29 laps behind the lead lap with 11 hours gone, leading team-mate Norris to lament: "Incredible. Leading the race after 10 hours, and it ends just like that. Game bugs and it's pretty much over. We'll keep fighting and see what we can do... :( feelsbadman."
The virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans
© rFactor 2
With the Team Redline car out of the action, the Rebellion Williams Esport team held the 1–2 throughout the early hours and at the halfway point the GTE class was dominated by Porsche, with the pole-sitting Porsche 911 RSR of Tandy, Güven, Rogers and Østgaard.
With just over four hours remaining, the race's second red flag period was activated due to a technical issue and Verstappen's Team Redline rejoined the race with Kerkhof at the wheel, 146 laps down, but determined to finish this historic race.
As the race entered its final hour, just 30 seconds covered the top three, with the Veloce Esports car moving up to fourth after a strong and consistent showing by the team through the night. At the front, the gap between the leading REBELLION Williams Esports over the sister car was under 20 seconds, with the Bykolles car of Jernej Simončič just a few tenths behind in third. The big questing was, who had enough fuel and how would they cope with the lapped traffic?
Simončič made his move for second place with 20 minutes remaining, only to be re-passed by Michael Romanidis as the pair slugged it out in a thrilling battle. The Bykolles driver eventually forced his way in to second and pulling away from Romanidis.
At the chequered flag, REBELLION Williams Esports, with Wisniewski at the wheel, made history by winning the first ever virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans from the Bykolles team, with the second REBELLION Williams Esports coming home fourth. The Veloce Esports car of Gasly ended up fifth at the finish, with Jarno Opmeer bringing the car home behind the 2 Seas Motorsport car.
Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans results
- REBELLION Williams Esports – Louis Deletraz, Raffaele Marciello, Nikodem Wisniewski, Kuba Brzezinski
- Bykolles – Burst Esports – Tom Dillmann, Esteban Guerrieri, Jernej Simončič, Jesper Pedersen
- REBELLION Williams Esports – Agustin Canapino, Jack Aitken, Alex Arana, Michael Romanidis
- 2 Seasa Motorsport – Isa Bin Abdulla Al-Khalifa, Oliver Rowland, Rory MacDuff, Devin Braune
- Veloce Esports 1 – Jean-Eric Vergne, Pierre Gasly, Jarno Opmeer, Isaac Gillissen
- REBELLION Williams Esports – Yifei Ye, Arthur Rougier, Isaac Price, Jack Keithley
- E-Team WRT – Dries Vanthoor, Kelvin van der Linde, Fabrice Cornelis, Arne Schoonvliet
- TDS E Racing Motul – Larry ten Voorde, Giedo van der Garde, Alex Siebel, Dennis Jordan
- Team Rocket Zansho – Jenson Button, Alex Buncombe, Jan von der Heyde, Matt Richards
- Idec Sport Racing – Paul-Loup Chatin, Richard Bradley, Franco Colapinto, Michi Hoyer
