Season 2 of the E1 Championship came to a close today with the eighth round of the eSports competition taking place at the venue that hosted the very first Formula One World Championship race; Silverstone. For GT Radial Eurasia, the season finale summed up the season well, with bags of potential and race-winning pace, but unfortunately, left wanting for more.
Inigo Anton and Joaquin Garrido teamed up once again for the Filipino-based squad, and with double points on offer in the doubleheader, 118 in total, there was plenty to play for with Inigo still within a mathematical chance of winning the championship. Sadly, it wasn’t to be.
Qualifying was a ten-minute affair, with Inigo doing a great job to qualify on the outside of row two in fourth, while Joaquin lined up 11th. A 15-minute Sprint followed, and it was a frustrating one for GT Radial Eurasia. Inigo retained his position in the early laps, right in contention with the eventual race leaders ahead. However, he was deemed guilty of contact and, under the point rules, was called into the pits for a drive-through penalty.
This effectively ended his race-winning challenge, leaving him adrift of the pack to ultimately finish in 11th place, with the team appealing against two drivers for the alleged contact. Joaquin meanwhile survived dubious contact from Ar Muhammed Aleef in the early laps to gain three positions by the chequered flag for eighth position.
With the top 14 finishers flipped for the final round of the season, Inigo and Joaquin lined up P4 and P7 respectively. The former made a great start to run second initially from Dominic Ang, this soon became the lead on the fourth lap. With the former race leader dropping back, this allowed Inigo to lead the way from Luke Banister.
The BlackArts racer was able to pass Inigo for the lead shortly afterwards, with eventual racer winner Kalen Chin also on the move to grab the position. Running third, it all looked good for Inigo as he homed in on his second podium in as many rounds, but an iRacing server glitch meant that he had to pit twice for new tyres, through no fault of his own. This dropped him out of contention and down to eighth. He would gain two positions by the chequered flag.
“The main issue for this season finale was the double pitstop that dropped me out of contention,” Inigo explained. “For some reason I pitted and then the AI called me back in a second time and that dropped me out of the podium positions. Overall though, it’s been a great season, even if I did not get to be classified as an official race winner!
“I’m very thankful for all of the support I have received, both from my family and from GT Radial Eurasia, and I aim to come back better in season 3!”
Joaquin enjoyed one of his strongest races of the season from seventh on the grid, running sixth for much of the race, but dropping to 11th after his mandatory stop. He rebounded well to claim P8 for the season finale.
From contemporary Formula One cars, IndyCar, classic Lotus F1 machinery, E1 Season 2 has brought plenty of new challenges for the eSports simulator racers. While GT Radial Eurasia is proud of its performance over the season as a whole, they are already looking to Season 3 and the new challenges and opportunities ahead.
Mark Goddard, GT Radial Eurasia Team Principal
“Whilst we again demonstrated we had the pace to win, luck was not on our side. I have to thank GT Radial for their support, the drivers, and our engineer, Oliver, for all their hard work this season. We’ve enjoyed season 2 but we are determined to come back stronger next time!”
