Gran Turismo 7 was the real wildcard round in this year’s Esports Racing League, with many of the top drivers having limited experience on console games, never mind GT7 itself.
And this was reflected early in Round 3, when two of the pre-race top four teams were knocked out after the Heats, and the other two after the Quarter-Finals…
Heats
As Coque Lopez of TC Esports landed a lights-to-flag blow on the rest of the field in Heat 1, it was clear that qualifying would be super important at the fictional Circuit de Sainte-Croix in France. Kylian Drumont, Kaj de Bruin, and Baptiste Beauvois all dominated their heats after getting pole, but quite quickly it was clear that quite a few big teams would have to go through the Second Chance Race.
Virtus.pro and Veloce Thrustmaster were outclassed early, while Drago Racing’s Angel Inostroza lost the car from a top 10 securing position, and so would have to go through the lottery.
Second Chance Race
With the grid order sorted by performance through the heats and not qualifying, the race saw much more overtaking, alongside the persistent mistakes from inexperienced drivers. For the second race in a row, Inostroza was in a position to advance before a last-lap error, which dropped him to 11th, and despite losing position earlier, championship-leading Team Nitro would survive by the skin of their teeth in second at the expense of Visceral Esports.
Quarter-Finals
The first of two Quarter-Finals was the first chance for Floris Simmerman of ReFerox Esports to flex his muscles, with a lights-to-flag victory. However, further back, de Bruin finished 11th, putting all the pressure on Drumont to win and hope results went their way.
Under maximum pressure, the Frenchman delivered and won the race, while Team Nitro and BS+ Competition’s drivers finished 10th and 11th, respectively; they were out.
Semi-Final
This gave a chance for new teams to make their mark on the season, and Simmerman again clinched this opportunity with a win. Behind, RAFA ERA, R8G, and GTS92 were all separated by mere points heading onto the last lap.
GTS92 knew that if Federico Cervi could pass Drumont, they would get into their first final, and so teammate Mateo Estevez backed the R8G driver into his teammate, hoping for a pass. The pass came at turn eight, but not without substantial contact, enough for race control to call a foul, and R8G Esports would just about scrape through.
Final races
The first two races saw very few overtakes, with the grid setting the results uniformly. After taking pole, Drumont dominated race one, before multiple Racing Unleashed champion Michal Smidl won from the front in race two, an amazingly impressive drive against GT7 specialists, considering he only had two days of practice.
Floris Simmerman’s great run of form unfortunately came to an end, and so ReFerox Esports were out of it, but just one point separated R8G and RAFA ERA going into the last race.
RAFA ERA started with the track position advantage, but two passes on the opening lap from de Bruin on both rival drivers paved the way for Drumont to do the same, and despite some unnecessary battles with Simmerman for the race lead, and two post-race penalty points, R8G Esports came home with enough points to take the round.
It was a round that could set the tone for the rest of the season, as momentum will be very important going into the iRacing round, perhaps the most familiar sim to most drivers.
Even though they’ll be in the unfamiliar V8 Supercars, it should play out as expected, and with an incredibly close battle for the all-important top four positions, the Esports Racing League is only getting more exciting towards the end of the season.
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