Team Redline wins both classes and the title at the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022, the finale of the e-sport endurance series

Felipe Drugovich, Oliver Rowland, Jeffrey Rietveld and Michal Smidl of Realteam Hydrogen Redline have won the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022, the final of the 2021/22 Virtual Le Mans Series (LMVS), in commanding fashion. (Pictures: 24h Le Mans virtual 2022)

The final race of the first season of the e-sport endurance series was listed with a prize money of 250,000 US dollars. This prize was secured by the team from Reealteam Hydrogen Redline. The victory in the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans also made the title win perfect for them.

But not only in the LMP class, but also in the GTE class, victory in the season finale went to the Redline team, in this case under the nomination of BMW Team Redline with Kevin Siggy, Rudy van Buren, Lorenzo Colombo and Enzo Bonito.

Formula 2 driver Felipe Drugovich in the 123 Redline Oreca driven by Formula One World Champion Max Verstappen.

In the GTE class, Red Bull Racing Esports was on pole with the Corvette after an impressive lap by Sebastian Job of Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 esports.

But: before the start of the race, there were six-minute penalties in pit lane for the 31 BMW GTE line-up, familiar from the W Series, there was a hardware problem. As a result, the car was out of the race before the start.

Dramas throughout the prototype field

Although polesitter Drugovich led the first two corners of the race, the lead was short-lived. Verstappen passed at Tertre Rouge on the very first lap to take the lead early on.

From then on, the Formula 1 world champion tried to extend his lead. But the 123 Redline car was comfortably in the lead after a metronomic stint from VCO ProSIM champion Maximilian Benecke.

After more than seven hours Verstappen was back at the wheel, but then chose an aggressive line over the kerbs n the Ford chicane. The result was a spin and heavy contact with the track barrier, with two wheels torn off. For the former leader, this was the end of the race.

Verstappen’s spin put the 61 SEM9.Axle Porsche GTE of Alister Yoong. The latter had already gone off the road shortly before due to a separate incident.

“Game of chess” in the GTE field

The GTE class was no less exciting. In the early stages, Dennis Lind, 2021 British GT Champion, in the 77 Proton Competition Porsche began to battle with the Ferrari for third place.

Kevin van Dooren, who had struggled throughout the race, dueled with Ferrari driver Nicklas Nielsen. The two drove side by side through the second Mulsanne chicane, then through Indianapolis and also through Arnage. One lap later, when they were again side by side through Indianapolis, Nielsen slid into the guardrail and had to pit to repair the damage. Proton was now clearly in third place.

E-Sport racing at its best

In the end it was Realteam Hydrogen Redline with drivers Drugovich, Rowland, Rietveld and Smidl that crossed the finish line first after 24 gruelling hours, securing their second win of the season and also the overall championship title.

The 4 Floyd ByKolles-Burst car finished third, one lap down, narrowly missing out on the LMVS title.

“This feels like redemption for last year, an amazing performance by the team in such an incredible event,” said Atze Kerkhof, Director of Team Redline, adding, “2022 is off to a really good start. [In the GTE] we came out on top. We had a great strategy, perfect engineers and teamwork. Today we weren’t the better car, but we did it.”

In the GTE class, BMW Team Redline had it easy from halfway through the race with Kevin Siggy, Rudy van Buren, Lorenzo Colombo and Enzo Bonito. The team even recovered from a scare when van Buren’s simulator failed just before the halfway point of the race, resulting in a three-hour drive for him to Siggy’s location to finish the race on his simulator.

Gerard Neveu, Executive Producer of the 24h Le Mans virtual, sums up: “We are very satisfied. To have 116 simulators representing the 50 cars running for 24 hours in 28 countries and connected to the same server without any technical failures during the long race is very satisfying. “

Result 24h Le Mans of LMVS (LMP):

1st 49 Yas Heat – Will Tregurtha, Sandy Mitchell, Marko Pejic, Balazs Remenyik

Result 24h Le Mans of LMVS (GTE):

1. 89 BMW Team BS+ Competition – Bruno Spengler, Robby Foley, Alen Terzic, Joonas Raivio

LMVS Overall (LMP):

1st 8 R8G ESPORTS – 54

LMVS Overall (GTE):

1. 55 BMW Team GB – 49