V10 R-League: Porsche24 Redline crowned champions in hard-fought final round

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 the Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi – with Porsche24 Redline securing the title in the last race.

Fighting to the end

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-take-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 affect the final standings and Porsche finished the season three points clear at the top.

Battling up and down the standings

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.

In the bottom half of the league 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.

Points mean prizes!

All eight sim racing teams share the £100,000 prize money based on their positions, with Porsche coming away with the winning cheque for £30,000.

The final standings are as follows: