The 2022 F1 Esports season got underway at Bahrain yesterday and today we headed to Imola! The first season of Formula 1 esports pro series on the F1 22 game has got off to an excellent start and today's action continued this.
Here are all the highlights from Round 2 of the 2022 season!
F1 Esports 2022 Imola
Thomas Ronhaar was looking to put his disappointment at Bahrain behind him. The Haas driver claimed his first pole position in F1 Esports at just the second time of asking earlier today.
Marcel Kiefer started alongside him on the front row, with yesterday's winner Lucas Blakeley in P3. Jarno Opmeer had it all to do from tenth on the grid.
Ronhaar had another poor start, losing positions to Kiefer and Blakeley, with the former leading into Tamburello. Opmeer also had a lacklustre getaway, getting tagged on Lap 1 and dropping down to P16 at the end of the initial tour.
Brendon Leigh was struggling on Lap 5 of 32, the Brit suffering damage and dropping out of the points. When it rains, it pours for Opmeer, as the Dutchman's engine began to overheat in the traffic.
Lead change
At the front, Blakeley found the pace to take the lead into Tamburello on Lap 7. Ronhaar tried to take Kiefer as well, but didn't get alongside into Villeneuve.
On Lap 13, we had the first of the pit-stops, as Fredi Rasumussen stopped for Medium compound tyres. His Red Bull teammate came in the next lap as the front-runners changed tyres.
Blakeley re-emerged in the net lead but with Kiefer still hot on his heels and Rasmussen in a surprise net P3. The likes of Opmeer, Bari Boroumand and Manuel Biancolilla all ran long on their starting rubber.
Those who went long didn't get benefit from the overcut and in fact lost places to those behind them. Opmeer finally pitted on Lap 20 from the race lead but he filtered out in P15.
Closing stages
It's fair to say that the race didn't kick into life in the final laps. The top seven were in a DRS train, but none could get close enough to make an overtake. That was with the exception of Ronhaar, who got into P4 on the final lap.
That meant that Blakeley made it two wins in a row to get off to the perfect start to the season.
Full Results
Blakeley's second win of the season sees him accrue 50 points already. Kiefer and Rasmussen made it a Red Bull double podium. Ronhaar got redemption after Bahrain, finishing P4.
Moreno was a solid P5, with Matthijs van Ervan and impressive sixth. Boroumand was P7, the final car in the leading group. Tonizza was eighth, with Alvaro Carreton in P9.
Opmeer scored the final point after Simon Weigang's penalty was applied.
When's the next round?
The first three rounds of the 2022 season are coming thick and fast! Round 3 takes place at Silverstone and is live tomorrow from 7:30pm BST. This will be live on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook as well as Sky Sports F1 in the UK.
Qualifying for Silverstone will be live from 3:30pm UK time earlier in the day.
After Silverstone, there will be another triple-header starting on 12th October in Austria. We'll be here to cover it all in this exciting Formula 1 Esports season!
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