Williams Esports challenged Porsche in a dramatic Season 1 finale at Yas Marina Circuit
YAS HEAT defeated BWT Racing Point Esports
The inaugural season of the V10 R-League came to a thrilling conclusion as the top two teams in the table battled it out in the finale of this uniquely formatted racing series around Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi – with Porsche24 Redline securing the title in the last race.
Williams Esports, sitting three points behind their final round opponents and league leaders Porsche24 Redline, needed to make it a clean sweep of all three races in their match up to steal the championship win.
The V10 R-League features matches played over three race formats – Head to Heads, the Relay Race and Team Race – with a point towards the league standings up for grabs in each.
Williams came out on top over Porsche in the Head to Heads with some thrilling and risky racing before holding firm in the Relay Race to pick up a second point and make sure that the final Team Race was a winner-takes-all finale.
It all started brilliantly for the Williams team, taking P1 and P2 at the first corner and keeping Porsche at bay until the fourth lap as contender for driver of the season, Michal Smidl, closed the gap and began to put the Williams drivers under scrutiny.
Heading into the final sector of lap four the pressure showed and Smidl and Atze Kerkhof for Porsche attacked, stealing second place with a pincer overtake, squeezing the Williams driver Nikodem Wisniewski into a spin and a collision with his own team mate, Martin Stefanko.
Smart defensive driving from Smidl and the rest of the Porsche drivers ensured that they did enough to secure the inaugural V10 R-League title.
A previous Williams pit lane violation from the Relay Race was later confirmed by the stewards to further effect the final standings and Porsche finished the season three points clear at the top.
BMW Motorsport SIM Racing Team and Red Bull Racing Esports had also faced off for third and fourth with the Red Bull team coming out on top with a 3-0 win, leapfrogging BMW in the final standings to claim the last step on the podium.
YAS HEAT pulled off a 2-1 win over BWT Racing Point Esports but it was only enough to retain seventh in the table with Racing Point holding fifth.
JAESA Team Suzuki, finishing sixth in the standings, shared a 1-1 draw with Team Fordzilla – placed eighth overall – in an action-packed race to complete the seventh round fixtures.
All eight sim racing teams share the £100,000 (GBP) prize money based on their positions, Porsche coming away with the £30,000 (GBP) winning cheque.
The inaugural season of the V10 R-League has been broadcast to millions across STARZPLAY Arabia and online in the MENA region, as well as BT Sport and ESPN globally. Season 2 is confirmed and will return in early 2021, bigger and better.
Saif Al Noaimi, ADMM Acting CEO said: “The Esports Racing Championship and V10 R-League has welcomed the very best teams and drivers from around the world to compete in Series 1, creating fantastic on track action and significant, global viewer engagement. The programme is delivering fantastic results and Season 2 will build on this success. This is testament to our strategy of working with Gfinity, in bringing together the best people to deliver best in class esports racing products.”
John Clarke, CEO at Gfinity, said: “The success of the first season is largely down to the commitment of the teams and drivers to this new format. We promised drama and anyone watching the final round certainly got that. As we look ahead to Season 2 we now have a series that has been seen by millions globally. We are excited to share that a range of conversations are happening that will enable us to supersize the championship and continue Gfinity’s commitment to being the driving force of digital motorsport, one of the world’s fastest growing sports.”