Esports Pro Championship: Blakeley fights for opening win
14th September 2022McLaren Shadow’s newcomer Lucas Blakeley has gotten the papaya-coloured outfit off to the best start possible as he put up a intense fight for the win, in F1 Esports’ opening round.
How the race unfolded…
It was a good start from McLaren’s pole sitter, Lucas Blakeley, as the Scottish driver led the pack into the opening corner of the Bahrain International Circuit.
Whereas it was a rather poor start from Haas’ front row starter, Thomas Ronhaar, who was put under pressure for second place by Blakeley’s teammate, Bari Boroumand. The McLaren driver soon made light work of Ronhaar, who was quickly demoted to third.
After the opening corners, Ronhaar fell down to P4 after Mercedes’ defending world champion Jarno Opmeer found his way up to third-place.
By lap six, of 29, the pack remained closely contested with most of the drivers remaining within a second of each other – apart from Alfa Romeo’s Dani Bereznay who had pitted from the pack. The close nature had formed a lengthy DRS train.
Bereznay soon became the first retirement of the season as the Alfa Romeo driver retired on lap 11, the yellow flag was brought out but it didn’t trigger a safety car intervention.
Despite a mundane start to the Bahrain event, Blakeley finally pitted on at the end of lap 15 – while Opmeer continued on. As the Scotsman cut across the pit-exit line to try and maintain track position, the McLaren driver found himself amongst the mid-field pack, headed by his teammate, Boroumand.
After the two McLaren’s squabbled over net-second place, into turn one – alongside Ronhaar who remained amongst the trio, this allowed Opmeer to pit and return to the track in the net-race lead.
Following the carnage behind, Rohaar was forced to return to the pit lane for a second time after the Haas esports driver suffered wing damage, when he made contact with the Red Bull of Frederik Rasmussen.
Shortly after, on lap 21, the two McLaren drivers committed to a double overtake – into turn one – and bullied Opmeer off the track to move up into a provisional 1-2 finish.
The Dutch world champion was then forced to cut the corner and quickly had to return the position to Boroumand, this put Opmeer under immediate pressure from Blakeley who moved up to second place as the two drivers race into turn four.
At the end of lap 22, Rohaar retired from the race on the exit of the pit lane and became the second retirement of the race – alongside Bereznay.
On lap 24, with assistance from the Drag Reduction System, Blakeley returned to the lead of the race as the Scottish driver dove down the inside of his teammate. As a result, Boroumand refused to fight for the position and allowed his Scottish teammate to slip past.
Podium:
- Lucas Blakeley, McLaren
- Jarno Opmeer, Mercedes
- Bari Boroumand, McLaren
That’s it for the article: Esports Pro Championship: Blakeley fights for opening win! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Esports here!
- 2022 F1 Esports Pro Championship Gets Underway
- PSGL F1 PC season 31 to end ‘with immediate effect’
- F1 22: new era, new features
- IndyCar Esports: Felix Rosenqvist wins in inaugural Pro challenge
- Date set for inaugural Indycar Pro Esports event
To keep up to date with the latest news from Apex Motorsports, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!
Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
