iRacing Dallara GP: Three-in-a-row for Maarten van Loozenoord

Another race week, another Maarten van Loozenorrd victory in the 2021 Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship series. For the fourth time this year and for the third time in-a-row, van Loozenoord took the checkers, this time at the Hockenheimring, vaulting him to the top of the points standings with four races to go.

It wasn’t a straight shot for van Loozenoord, as he only managed a third place qualifying effort. It didn’t matter though once he got to the top spot. For the first time all season, it wasn’t a pack race for the win as van Loozenoord won by over 12 seconds.

The pack instead battled for the second spot. On the final lap, the battle for second burst with Yohann Harth coming out on top. Both Valentin Mandernach and Przemyslaw Lemanek wound up unable to finish the race.

TABLES TURNED AT HOCKENHEIMRING

Usually, the battle for the top spot is between the Apex Racing Team drivers and affiliates and van Loozenoord on his own. This week, it was R8G Esports and their affiliate drivers taking team control to a new level. The actual R8G Esports drivers of Florian Lebigre and Mandernach locked out the front row starting spots.

van Loozenoord, a Predator Simracing driver by name, affiliated with R8G Esports, wound up starting third while his Predator teammate Lemanek started in seventh. The Top 2 opted to qualify with medium compound tires, which meant they needed to start the race on mediums as well. That was fine and all, but after about eight laps or so, the tires will be less efficient than the standard hard compound tires.

Lebigre paced van Loozenoord for as long as he could, but as soon as the tires started to give up, the switch was made. As van Loozenoord pulled away and the R8G teammates fell back into the clutches of the field, there wasn’t much in the way of competition for the lead.

CHAMPIONSHIP IMPLICATIONS!

On the first lap of the race, technical teammates Ben Fuller and Peter Berryman got together exiting Turn 1. Berryman came into the race as the points leader, but lost his front wing in the contact, forcing an early pit. Fuller was fast too, but had to recover from spinning for the rest of the race.

Another title contender, Harth was forced to start from the 24th position after a penalty was issued by iRacing stewards. The penalty may have cost him a chance at the win on Thursday, but it did not cost him too dearly in points.

APEX RACING TEAM VS R8G ESPORTS

With Berryman and Fuller out of the picture, Harth was able to slice his way through the field. He had to get through a couple of R8G Esports cars to do so, however, usually what he and his Apex teammates do to van Loozenoord on a weekly basis.

Harth eventually made it up to second place, but it was not over on the white flag lap. The trio of Harth, Lemanek and Mandernach went three-wide in the battle for second. The tight corner was not ideal, and the three of them made contact. Harth continued on, but the other two had broken suspensions and fell out of the race.

The incident allowed Fuller to recover to a podium finish while Berryman fought back to finish eighth. If there was any consolation, Mandernach did collect the fastest lap of the race, ultimately finishing 11th.

TOP 10 RESULTS AT HOCKENHEIM

1. 69 Maarten van Loozenoord – Predator Simracing – 53 LAPS
2. 90 Yohann Harth – Apex Racing Team +0:12.644 sec
3. 55 Ben Fuller – SDK Gaming +0:16.227 sec
4. 09 Andreas Henkel – Privateer +0:26.678 sec
5. 9 Tamas Simon – Privateer +0:32.930 sec
6. 8 David Toth – wannaBEE SRT +0:33.966 sec
7. 86 James Pinsker – Privateer +0:39.154 sec
8. 50 Peter Berryman – Apex Racing Team +0:47.197 sec
9. 66 Michele Costantini – SDK Gaming +0:50.905 sec
10. 02 Florian Lebigre – R8G Esports +0:54.056 sec

POINTS STANDINGS LEAVING HOCKENHEIM

After six races, van Loozenoord takes the top spot with his fourth win of the season. Harth moves up into second place with his second place effort from the 24th starting spot. Berryman recovered to finish in eight, but falls back to third in the points. Fuller and Costantini round out the Top 5.

TOP 10 STANDINGS AFTER HOCKENHEIM

1. Maarten van Loozenoord – 115 points
2. Yohann Harth – 108 points
3. Peter Berryman – 107 points
4. Ben Fuller – 82 points
5. Michele Costantini – 75 points
6. Tamas Simon – 53 points
7. David Toth – 41 points
8. Valentin Mandernach – 36 points
9. Matteo Ugolotti – 35 points
10. Jarl Teien – 33 points

NEXT RACE

Next up for the series is a trip back to the states, racing at Road America. The coverage next week starts at the same time, 3:00 pm ET. Races will be broadcasted on the iRacing social channels. the full schedule can be found below.