PSGL: Longuet fights for maiden victory despite pressure from Opmeer in Suzuka
17th August 2023Ferrari’s Nicolas Longuet has secured his maiden win, in the Premier Sim Gaming League, following pressure from the second-placed Mercedes of Jarno Opmeer.
How the race unfolded…
It was a clean start from the field as Alfa Romeo’s Brendon Leigh held onto the lead into the opening right-hand corner, ahead of Longuet, Thomas Ronhaar (Alfa Romeo) and Bari Broumand (Ferrari) who occupied the top four. Mercedes’ Jarno Opmeer rounded out the top five.
It was a range of different tyre strategies in the first half of the race, the top 10 had a majority of users on the soft compound tyres. Only Ronhaar and McLaren’s Otis Lawrence, in 10th, were on the mediums whilst Red Bull’s Frederik ‘Fred’ Rasmussen was on the hard tyres. While, in the bottom half of the field, the drivers had a mix of tyre compounds with soft, medium and hard compound tyres being used.
After a handful of well-behaved laps, it was a provisional 1-2 for the Alfa Romeo duo as Ronhaar took second place from Longuet around Spoon Corner, on lap five. At the beginning of the following lap, the two Alfa’s inverted track positions to allow Ronhaar into the lead.
However, at the end of the sixth lap, Leigh ran down the inside of his teammate into the final chicane to defend his position from Longuet. Despite this, Ronhaar remained in the lead for a short amount of time, ahead of Leigh and Longuet down the main straight.
Using DRS both Leigh and Longuet overtook the Dutch Alfa Romeo driver to revert their track positions back
On lap nine, Red Bull’s Josh Idowu, McLaren’s Joni Tomalaand and Williams’ Ismael Fahesi all peeled into the pit lane to conduct their mandatory pit stops. Broumand, Opmeer, Alpha Tauri’s Jake Benham, Lawrence and Williams’ Shanaka Clay followed suit, a lap later.
Of the front runners, Longuet and Leigh pitted on lap 10 – a lap before the pit window was expected to open – to exchange their soft tyres for the hards (Leigh) and medium tyres (Longuet). On the exit of the pit lane, the Ferrari and Alfa driver quickly lost the race net lead as they were overtaken by Broumand and Opmeer.
At the end of lap 11, as Ronhaar pitted, with the run down to the swooping right-hander Opmeer managed to squirm his way past, championship contender, Broumand to take the race lead ahead of the two Ferraris.
However, shortly after on lap 13, Longuet moved into the net-race lead down in sixth as the race leader Rasmussen, Tom Manley (Alpha Tauri), Ruben Pedreno (Alpine), Dani Bereznay (Haas) and Fabrizio Donoso (Aston Martin) were all yet to pit.
The move occurred down the pit straight as Longuet utilised a mix of the slipstream, DRS and faster tyres. This demoted Opmeer and Broumand to seventh and eighth, respectively, but this still remained net-second and third positions after the pit stops.
Aston Martin’s Istvan Puki found his race come to a premature end as he endured a wheel-to-wheel battle with Mercedes’ Marcel Kiefer. The two made wheel-to-wheel contact at the beginnings of the ‘S’ section, at turns two and three, which spun the Aston Martin around and he found himself on the grass verge, faced with the oncoming traffic.
Thankfully, the stranded Aston Martin was able to avoid contact with anyone else as he returned to the pit lane, to retire from the race in the pits.
Donoso finally pitted, as the last driver to do so, at the end of lap 17 which meant Longuet retook the lead of the race with Opmeer and Broumand in hot pursuit behind him, in second and third respectively.
At the beginning of the final lap, Leigh found a way past Broumand on the run to the first corner and took the final podium position. Despite his best efforts, Opmeer could not find a way past Longuet and had to settle for second place while the Ferrari driver went on to secure his maiden victory in the Esports series.
Podium:
- Nicolas Longuet, Ferrari
- Jarno Opmeer, Mercedes
- Brendon Leigh, Alfa Romeo
That’s all for our article: PSGL: Longuet fights for maiden victory despite pressure from Opmeer in Suzuka!
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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.
