The first round of this season’s Esports Racing League – a unique multi-format sim racing competition – began in style, with fierce battles on the Assetto Corsa Competizione game.
Heats
Each driver would be alone and away from their team-mates in the Heats phase, and Aiden Walsingham immediately lived up to his billing of one of the top ACC drivers by taking pole and the first win of the new ERL season. He set the tone for the evening, as all three heats and the second chance race were won by the polesitters.
Some of the favourites came through easily, but behind in the carnage, Coanda were anonymous and struggling, while Marcell Csincsik had a difficult second heat for R8G, putting both in the last chance race. Despite the best efforts of Nikodem Wisniewski in the final heat for BS+ Competition, they too would have one last chance to progress.
Second Chance Race
Robbie Stapleford took pole for BS+ Competition and continued the trend, but perhaps more surprisingly, Michael Moening for Samantha Tan Esports hitched a ride and the two broke away. Despite Csincsik fighting through to third, and Elliott Vayron up to fourth for Coanda, both teams would be out at the earliest opportunity. A huge surprise and a big wake-up call for the next round in two weeks on Le Mans Ultimate.
Quarter-Final
All three drivers in the remaining 12 teams were on track together for the first time in the Quarter-Final, and it was Voijtech Fiala who really began to get into his stride. He would dominate for Virtus.pro, while Team Nitro and Williams Sim Racing joined them in mobbing the front. BS+ Competition barely made it into the all-important top six, while Aiden Walsingham didn’t quite have the team support required for Veloce Thrustmaster to make it, and they finished seventh.
Semi-Final
Fiala again enjoyed good form to win, and despite an incident involving Bastian Richter of Team Nitro, they made it comfortably through as well. A domino effect was triggered in turn one by a Williams Sim Racing driver, earning them a penalty, and taking out other well-placed teams like BS+ Competition in the process as well. The stage was set for the best-of-three finale.
Final
McCormack took control early in race one, but his teammates were pinned to the back. With three Nitro cars lined up in the next three places, they would take the race win, and although Fiala had a look on the last lap, the Red Bull Ring proved surprisingly difficult to pass on.
After qualifying in the final three places for race two, Virtus.pro had to get aggressive to keep the final alive. Not only were they unable to come through from the back, seemingly suffering from similar problems to the previous race, but they also received penalty points, which gave Team Nitro the victory and the first round of ERL in 2025.
If Nitro were expected to win any round, it was this one on ACC. They have seasoned drivers for this platform, and saw off other teams who had drivers of a similar calibre on the sim. But the challenge for them comes in the next rounds, as they aim to stick with the world’s best on four other platforms before the end of 2025 in the hopes of qualifying for the final at Sim Formula Europe 2026.
Esports Racing League Round 1 results
- Team Nitro
- Virtus.Pro
- Gladius Competitions
- Williams Sim Racing
- Visceral Esports
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