Fresh-faced McLaren Shadow driver, Lucas Blakeley, takes the opening win of the 2022 F1 Pro Championship in Bahrain again after 2021.
The former Aston Martin driver was unstoppable at the virtual Bahrain International Circuit a year ago. He managed to take the debut victory for his new team, McLaren Shadow, at the opening race of the 2022 F1 Pro Championship.
After a rather tactical first phase of the race with little action worth mentioning, Blakeley had led the field in commanding fashion along with his teammate Bardia Boroumand. However, with the race distance extended from 35 to 50 per cent this season, the tactical component is magnified.
Hectic pit stop phase
Things got wild on lap 16: Blakeley, coming out of the pit lane, met his immediate pursuers Boroumand, Thomas Ronhaar and Frederik Rasmussen. A four-way battle broke out with the better end for the two McLarens. Rasmussen caught the Haas of the outstanding rookie Ronhaar with his Red Bull. The latter had to park his car with damage while the Dane received a time penalty for the action.
Double champion Jarno Opmeer, who came from fifth on the grid, took advantage of the situation. He stayed out one lap longer than all the others. The Mercedes driver was thus able to make up time and found himself at the front of the field after his pit stop.
But the McLarens fought back: In Verstappen style, Boroumand squeezed past Opmeer after the long start and finish straight. The latter found hardly any space on the track and bumped across the grass – Blakeley took the chance and slipped through right away.
German equals best result so far
But the double champion did not give up and was able to pass Boroumand, who had swapped places with Blakeley for strategic reasons. However, he was unable to reach the Scotsman.
German Simon Weigang also showed an outstandingly consistent race. Coming from seventh place, he stalked towards the front. In the end, he equalled his best F1 Pro Championship result to date – fourth place. This means that he has already collected more points in just one race than over the whole of last season.
The second German, Marcel Kiefer, on the other hand, had a difficult race. After being eliminated early in qualifying, he managed to fight his way up from the end of the field to 13th place.
The F1 Pro Championship is already going into the second round today. From 20:30, the sim racers will fight for victory on the virtual track of Imola in Italy. The whole thing can be seen on the Formula 1 channels on Twitch, YouTube and Facebook.
