Brilliant Ronhaar holds his nerve to claim maiden F1 Esports win!

Austria has long been a favourite for online races in F1, and for F1 Esports it is usually where sparks fly and famous wins are taken.

Round 4 was the first race of Event 2, and offered everyone the chance to narrow the gap to McLaren's Lucas Blakeley at the top of the standings.

Qualifying

A scintillating 1:03.658 put Red Bull's Frede Rasmussen on pole, but only barely.

Rookie Thomas Ronhaar claimed P2 followed by Josh Idowu and then Bari Boroumand.

Championship leader Lucas Blakeley started P7 with defending champ Jarno Opmeer in P9.

But those qualifying times became redundant as the rain fell for the race!

Inters on!

A wet race start saw the whole field put on the intermediate tyres, but there were no repeats from the Japanese Grand Prix a few days ago.

The field got away well and bar a few wide out of turn 1 it was a safe start.

Rasmussen outbraked himself into turn 3, opening the door for Ronhaar to take the lead out of turn 4 as Blakeley moved up to P6 and Opmeer made it to P8.

While Rasmussen and Ronhaar dueled out front, it was Blakeley who was on the move, making it past Nicolas Longuet and into P5 where the rear defuser of his teammate Boroumand awaited.

As the race settled down the battle of battery saving and tyre conserving began.

At the end of lap 9 Filip Presnajder gambled for a pitstop in the Alpine and slapped on the hard tyres. It felt far too early and he was quickly losing time.

Time for slicks

The end of lap 13 saw the Matthijs van Erven in the second Haas jump into the pits to test the waters, and with Presnajder catching the back of the pack the front of the pack dived into the pitlane too.

It was Bari Boroumand who stayed out along with Dani Moreno and Marcel Kiefer to avoid stacking in the pitlane.

Everyone put hards on except for Longuet, who put on the faster-warming medium tyres and used that advantage to jump Blakeley.

Bari's extra lap cost him as he was swamped on his colder tyres after exiting the pits and ended up in 8th after Blakeley flew past and the Opmeer forced it was by.

Lap 18 saw a change for the lead as Rasmussen used DRS to fly past Ronhaar, who held off his battery to not fight the move.

Ronhaar was back through on lap 20 as Longuet made a move on Idowu and nearly got past Rasmussen too.

The Alfa Romeo's medium tyres were a huge advantage in the initial laps, but could Longuet hold onto them for long enough to not fade back through the pack?

As the race reached two-thirds distance the lead pack reached all the way down to Patrik Sipos in 13th. Once more the race settled into tyre and battery saving, but it was pass or be passed in the middle of the pack. Opmeer tried a move on Blakeley but the two held position despite going several corners side-by-side.

As the laps ticked down Rasmussen loomed large in Ronhaar's mirrors. His battery was full on lap 31 and Rasmussen just had to pick his moment, and it seemed to be the same story for Idowu in P4 as well.

On lap 35 of 36 Rasmussen made his move, but he seemingly pounced too early, giving Ronhaar DRS on the final straight.

Behind Longuet's tyres disappeared, causing a queue that allowed Opmeer to make a magnificent move on Blakeley at turn 9.

On the final lap Ronhaar put on a defensive masterclass to hold off Rasmussen and claim his first win in F1 Esports!!

Rasmussen came home second with Idowu in third and Opmeer in 4th.

What's next...

The F1 Esports grid moves on to the iconic Spa-Francorchamps next.

Qualifying will start at 3:30pm BST on Thursday 13th October. The race will start at 7:30pm BST on the same day.

You can watch all the action of Formula 1's official Twitch and YouTube channels.