F1 Esports: Blakeley secures win to bolster championship hopes
15th December 2022McLaren Shadow’s Lucas Blakeley secured another F1 Pro Championship win, in Brazil, and heads into the season finale with high chances of securing his maiden title.
How the race unfolded…
The two McLarens of Lucas Blakeley and Bari Boroumand got away from the line fairly evenly, in the wet conditions, as the duo lead in tandem down into the first corner. However, the top two remained unchanged with Ferrari’s Fabrizio Donoso in third.
In the wet conditions, the entire grid opted to start the race with the green-ringed intermediate tyres. However, the session was expected to dry up with its dynamic weather conditions.
By the end of the first lap, the top three remained unchanged.
On lap six, the field were evenly spread out across the board as half-a-second separated each individual driver. Four of the five drivers, who were contention for the title, sat in the top five with Blakeley out infront, ahead of Boroumand. Third-placed Donoso separated the two other drivers of Frederik Rasmussen (Red Bull) in P4 and Thomas Ronhaar (Haas) in P5.
While Mercedes’ Jarno Opmeer remained in contention for the title, the Dutchman sat in ninth place between his teammate, Jake Benham (in P8) and Alpine’s Patrik Sipos.
The rain seemed to stop on lap 10 but the track remained fairly damp and preferrable for the intermediate tyres. Despite this, Blakeley blasted through and continued to secure fastest lap after fastest lap.
On lap 14, Brendon Leigh, Shanaka Clay and Piotr Stachulec pitted for the dry compounds with Leigh and Clay on the white-ringed hard tyres while Stachulec opted for the mediums.
This was quickly followed by a handful of drivers which included two of the championship contenders of Ronhaar and Opmeer, a lap later. Both drivers opted for the mediums. As a result, this spurred on the remaining front runners to pit, on lap 17, which consisted of two championship rivals; Blakeley and Rasmussen.
However, the final championship, Boroumand, was forced to extend his first stint by a lap as a result of Blakeley’s stop.
While most of the drivers were equipped with dry tyres, only Alpine’s Luke Smith remained equipped with the inters. As such, the Alpine driver became a mobile chicane for the following field. The British driver soon peeled into the pit lane to exchange his 24-lap old inters for a fresh set of slick tyres.
Within two laps (27 and 28), Ronhaar’s championship hopes started to crumble away as the Dutch driver was quickly overtaken by Donoso, on lap 27, and Longuet, on lap 28. As a result, the Haas driver dropped from fourth to sixth in the order.
While Rasmussen and Boroumand exchanged track positions, as Blakeley checked out at the front, the Iranian allowed the Red Bull driver to move up into second place – with ease – down into turn one on lap 33. This allowed the McLaren driver to build up his attack on the final lap.
Despite his best efforts, Boroumand was not able to find his way past the Red Bull’s Danish driver. In the end Blakeley secured another win ahead of Rasmussen and Boroumand in second and third respectively.
Podium:
- Lucas Blakeley, McLaren
- Frederik Rasmussen, Red Bull
- Bari Boroumand, McLaren
That’s it for the article; F1 Esports: Blakeley secures win to bolster championship hopes!
What did you think of the race around Brazil’s iconic Interlagos? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Esports here!
- F1 Pro Championship: Blakeley leads five-way battle in season finale
- F1 Esports Pro Championship: Blakeley dominates in Zandvoort
- 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
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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.
