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Leclerc wins for his Esports debut

The Monegasque of Ferrari wins the Virtual Grand Prix of Vietnam… contested on the polygons of the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia 

Published on 05/04/2020 à 22:57

Julien BILLIOTTE

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Leclerc wins for his Esports debut

8 days ago, Charles Leclerc had never ridden competitively on the official game F1 2019 developed by Codemasters. 

A week later, the pilot Ferrari signs pole position and masterfully wins the second round of the Virtual Grands Prix, the virtual counterpart of the Formula 1 world championship events organized by Liberty Media to compensate for the cancellation and postponement of the first "real" » races of the season.

After bringing together only two 2020 grid starters in Bahrain two weeks ago – Lando Norris (McLaren) and Nicholas latifi (Williams) – F1 convinced 4 others to join them: Leclerc, but also George Russell (Williams), Alexander albon (Red Bull), and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo).

The rest of the grid was again an eclectic mix of former drivers – Jenson Button, Johnny Herbert, and Anthony Davidson – young talents from various F1 backgrounds – Louis Delétraz, Pietro Fittipaldi, Arthur Leclerc, and Christian Lundgaard – influential YouTubers, or Luxury guest stars like 2019 world cricket champion Ben Stokes.

The second round of the Virtual GP took place on the day when the first (real) Vietnam Grand Prix in history was to be held, but given that the F1 2019 game does not include the Hanoi track, the 20 drivers took part. faced at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne instead.

Author of pole position, Leclerc dominated the 29-lap event from start to finish. Under the virtual checkered flag, he is ahead of the Renault of the Danish hope of Losange Lundgaard, and the Williams of the former champion of Formula 2 Russell, at the end of a chaotic race in the first laps but overall more realistic and clean than the happy mess of Sakhir.

Note that Norris again experienced connection problems and was unable to start the race. 
 
The 3rd round of the Virtual Grands Prix will take place in two weeks, Sunday April 19, on the Shanghai track instead of the Chinese Grand Prix, which was to be held on that date but was the first event officially postponed due to of COVID-19. 

Julien BILLIOTTE

AUTOhebdo deputy editor-in-chief. The feather dipped in gall.

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