F1 Esports Pro Championship: Blakeley dominates in Zandvoort
14th October 2022McLaren Shadow’s Lucas Blakeley put in a dominant performance to clear a six-second gap over his closest rival, and teammate, Bardia Boroumand at the F1 Esports Pro Championship’s Dutch Grand Prix.
How the race unfolded…
In very wet conditions, ahead of the final race in the second event of the 2022 Pro Championship, Haas’ pole sitter, Thomas Ronhaar, found himself into the barrier at the opening corner. This came after the Haas driver made contact with Alfa Romeo’s Nicolas Longuet down the inside of the first corner: Tarzan.
In turn, this allowed Blakeley to drive out into the lead of the race, followed by Mercedes’ defending world champion Jarno Opmeer and – round five winner – McLaren’s Bardia Borounmand.
By lap five, there was a big split between the two different compounds as the top-half of the field ran with the, blue-ringed, full-wet tyres while the other half were equipped with the green-walled intermediates – led by Red Bull Racing’s Frederik Rasmussen.
On lap seven, Haas’ Piotr Stachulec and Longuet pitted to exchange his wet tyres for the intermediates. However, the top runners soon pulled into the pit lane to also change their tyres for the intermediates, such as Blakeley and Opmeer.
This decision forced Blakeley and Opmeer’s teammates; Boroumand and Dani Moreno (Mercedes), to go around for another lap before they could equip the favourable tyre.
After the wet runners pitted to swap over for the inters, Aston Martin Esports’ John Evans was the only driver to remain on the wet compound tyres. When the Briton finally pitted, on lap 13, the Aston dropped out of the points and fell to the bottom of the order – in P19, only beaten by Alpine Esports’ Luke Smith.
At the beginning of lap 19, Alfa Romeo’s Tomasz Poradzisz and Alpha Tauri’s Sebastian Job pulled into the pit lane to become the first to test out the circuit with dry slick tyres. The two guinea pigs swapped their inters for the yellow-walled medium compounds.
At the same time, Blakeley pushed out a healthy five-second gap ahead of, second-placed, Opmeer before the two drivers peeled into the pit lane for their set of slick tyres. Blakeley – and the rest of the field – opted for the medium compound tyres while Opmeer went for an alternate strategy, with the white-walled hard compounds.
McLaren soon found themselves in a 1-2 position as Blakeley checked out in front while Boroumand managed to overtake the defending champion down the pit straight. However, Opmeer stumbled down the order once again, to P4, on the 25th lap, after the Dutch driver was overtaken by Red Bull Esports’ Frederik Rasmussen down the main straight.
After a great start to the race, Stachulec’s race disintegrated into tatters.
On the exit of the banked turn four, on lap 31, the Haas driver fought with Moreno for P6 but found himself in the wall, after a slight excursion across the exit kerb. Stachulec attempted to return to the circuit but as he lit up his rear tyres the traction wasn’t there, and the Polish driver found himself in the adjacent barrier.
Despite Boroumand’s best efforts, there was nothing the Iranian could do before the chequered flag fell in Zandvoort to cut into his teammate’s six-second lead.
Podium:
- Lucas Blakeley, McLaren Shadow
- Bardia Boroumand, McLaren Shadow
- Frederik Rasmussen, Red Bull Racing Esports
That’s it for the article: F1 Esports Pro Championship: Blakeley dominates in Zandvoort? What was your favourite moment in the second event of the 2022 F1 Esport Series Pro Championship? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Esports here!
- F1 Esports Pro Championship: Boroumand defends maiden win against Rasmussen
- F1 Esports Pro Championship: Ronhaar secures Haas’ first ever win
- F1 Pro Esports Event Two Preview: Can Blakeley maintain his good start?
- Imola F1 Pro Esports: Blakeley makes it two-for-two
- Esports Pro Championship: Blakeley fights for opening win
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.
