Verstappen, Grosjean and Visser enter Le Mans Virtual Series Sebring round

Sebring International Raceway, with all of its bumps, is set to host the fourth round of the 2022-23 Le Mans Virtual Series season this weekend (3rd December).

The 500 Miles of Sebring is the last race on Le Mans Virtual Series calendar before the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual marquee race itself, but once again, many real-world racing stars have come out to play in this penultimate race featuring a mixture of concrete and asphalt racing surfaces.

40 teams of three drivers each will take to the 3.741-mile (6.019-kilometer) venue in the middle of Florida for the first and only race of the season that isn’t timed. It equates to just about 134 laps with lap times expected near the 1:45.00 second bracket. Last year’s event took over just four hours to complete.

There are a ton of real-world racing stars entered in this week’s event, many of which are there to meet their Pro level driver eligibility before the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual. Some drivers, however, have already met that requirement, and have their Pro level drivers entered in hopes of winning at Sebring.

A dominant force regardless, Team Redline will once again have the expertise of two-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen behind the wheel for the event, sharing the #1 LMP with two of the best sim racers in the business, Jeffrey Rietveld and Maximilian Benecke, just like at Spa last month.

They’ll go toe-to-toe with another F1 presence, current IndyCar star Romain Grosjean, who will pilot the #18 R8G Esports entry alongside a former European Le Mans Series champion in Mathias Beche as well a sim racing expert in Ulas Ozyildirim.

Team Redline’s #1 entry enters Sebring as the points leader over the #4 Floyd Vanwall-Burst LMP2 team. They’ll have Jernej Simončič and Jesper Pedersen as usual, but they’ll also have Damian Skowron in the seat this week as they look to close the 14-point deficit.

In all, the LMP field for Sebring is beyond stacked with real-world racing talent this time around. Sami-Matti Trogen joins the Williams Esports #5, Porsche Coanda’s two rides will have the likes of Ayhancan Güven in the #20 and Laurin Heinrich in the #23.

James Baldwin returns to drive in the most recent winning car in the series at Spa, the #63 AMG Team Petronas Esports LMP.

In the GTE class, Beitske Visser joins up with the #10 MAHLE Racing Team BMW team to take on Sebring. The Dutchwoman will join up with Muhammed Patel and Michele D’Alessandro as they look to improve upon the top-five finish earned by the team at Spa in early November.

The GTE points leaders in the BMW Team Redline entry will also have their Pro in the seat at Sebring, a sim-to-reality sensation in Rudy van Buren. The #71 BMW team will also have their mainstays in Kevin Siggy and Enzo Bonito alongside for the 500-mile ride as they attempt to grow their points lead.

Other GTE Pro level drivers include Marc Gassner in the #11 Project 1 by Dörr Esports Porsche, Dennis Lind in the #99 Oracle Red Bull Racing Porsche, Lasse Sørensen once again with the #95 Prodrive FYRA Esport Aston Martin as well as the return of Alexander Smolyar in the #888 R8G Esports Ferrari.

The 500 Miles of Sebring will be live on the Traxion.GG YouTube channel this weekend on Friday and Saturday.

Qualifying is at 6:00 pm GMT / 7:00 pm CET on Friday (2nd December) following the Le Mans Virtual Cup finale. The race itself is on Saturday (3rd December) from 12:30 pm GMT / 1:30 pm CET. 

Le Mans Virtual Series 500 Miles of Sebring LMP entry list

Le Mans Virtual Series 500 Miles of Sebring GTE entry list

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