The curtain came down on Season Zero of the E1 Championship with the final round of the inaugural eSports series taking place at Bathurst, Australia. For GT Radial Eurasia Motorsport, another strong showing saw Inigo Anton wrap up his campaign with another podium position, adding to his already impressive sim racing tally.
The aim of competing in the series for GT Radial Eurasia Motorsport, was to provide Filipino teammates Inigo and Wakkeen Garrido the opportunity to work closely with a real-word race team and to learn all about the importance of the collaboration between driver and the data engineer. Both young racers certainly did this, whilst maximised their opportunities throughout the championship.
The series saved – arguably – the best circuit to end, and with damage ‘turned down’ the racing was remarkably clean given it was double points and the season finale. Inigo and Wakkeen qualified fourth and tenth respectively for the short 15-minute Sprint Race and apart from the former being pushed wide at turn two on the opening lap, it was a relatively trouble-free race for both as they finished eighth and 11th.
The Reverse Grid race was more dramatic with Wakkeen starting from the pole and Inigo from the P4 spot. Right off the line, Inigo vaulted second but behind Wakkeen lost ground after a spin from a rival. Inigo was soon right behind Ariff Azmi, making full use of DRS on the long run to the second turn lap 3. The two made light contact with Inigo half-spinning as a result. Head down, he resumed behind Kalen Chin, maintaining the two-second deficit.
The application for pressure paid dividends with Chin making an error, dropping to third and promoting Inigo to the race lead. He was the first to pit for fresh tyres at the mid-distance mark, but it was eventual champion Naquib Azlan who got the jump in the stops to run ahead.
The closing stages saw Inigo cede position to Ayman Aqeem, but after an incident filled 30-minutes of racing he took the final chequered flag of the season in a fine third position, with Wakkeen ninth after another impressive run.
For 16-year-old Inigo and 14-year-old Wakkeen, together they secured fifth position for GT Radial Eurasia Motorsport, with 299 points over the eight rounds of sim competition.
