After a wild first day of F1 Esports, the teams and drivers returned to the Gfinity Arena for Race #3 around the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
The high-speed circuit has plenty of overtaking opportunities, but with such fine margins between the drivers one small mistake, or too many track extension warnings, could be fatal to any hope of points.
The hills are alive with the sound of changeable weather
An all Mercedes front row led the field through turn 1, and everyone got up the hill in one piece.
After an early overtake from Marcel Kiefer for 6th place the German got a little too bold into turn 3 trying to get past Lucas Blakeley. He ended up making contact with Bari Boroumand and picking up some damage. He would continue though, but drop back through the field.
Come lap 9 the weather, which already played such a factor in China, turned. The rain started to fall. The loss of grip bought Kiefer in, and on the next lap Blakeley led a stampede into the pits for intermediate tyres.
With the Mercedes doing some formation flying, Dani Moreno had to go an extra lap on the slicks just as DRS was disabled.
Blakeley's call was a lap to early though, as Opmeer and Rasmussen were able to get back out in front. It was Moreno who took some serious pain though, dropping back to 11th place and out of the points.
With the Mercedes now split, Rasmussen could eye up a move on Opmeer for the lead, but without DRS the Dane had to be patient and wait for the perfect moment.
The lack of DRS certainly hampered the action, as the only weapon the drivers had was ERS.
In the end, it was an easy win for Opmeer. Rasmussen will be happy to claim his first podium of the season, while Bari Boroumand picked up his first podium in F1 Esports, rounding out a very strong first event for the McLaren rookie.
F1 Esports Event 2
F1 Esports will return on 27-28 October.
The action gets under way at 3:30pm Wednesday, 27 October with the qualifying show. The British and Italian Grands Prix will start at 7:30pm. On Thursday, 28 October the Esports grid heads to Spa.
You can catch all the action on Formula 1’s official Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch channels!