24 Hours of Virtual Le Mans H+6: 2 Seas Leads, Alonso Breaks Down
The first six hours of the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans were marked by a red flag due to a server crash and Fernando Alonso's running out of fuel after only an hour and a half.
The organizers’ biggest fear has come true. After 4 hours and 15 minutes of racing, the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans had to be stopped due to a server problem; Red flag. All the cars had to line up in order on the finish line for twenty minutes while the issue was resolved.
Computing is acting up
The episode symbolized the main difference between virtual and real 24-hour races. The former depends on computing. Several drivers experienced various issues. Aurélien Panis, son of Olivier, for example, had to carry out more than six stints in a row (4 hours) because the game refused the driver change. At Alpine, the team’s sim racer faced connectivity issues, which forced him to return to the pits after two laps. He then moved his simulator to his grandmother’s house to get back behind the wheel. Finally, Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske) made an express simulator change due to a breakdown.
Alonso quickly broke down.
Fernando Alonso, on the other hand, cannot blame technology. The two-time Formula 1 world champion retired after only an hour and a half of racing. The cause? A fuel shortage! At the start of the race, the Spaniard collided with a GT. This maneuver cost him a stop-and-go penalty. He had to serve it during the refueling period. The regulations state that he must serve the penalty first. But if he did, he would run out of fuel. The solution was to refuel first and then serve the penalty, even if it meant getting another one afterward. But his team took the risk. Much to the dismay of Rubens Barrichello, who could not take the wheel. “I beg you, give us a thirty-lap penalty but let us back in,” he reacted in an interview.
This was done on the occasion of the red flag. FA/RB Allinsports was reinstated in thirtieth position.
2 Seas Motorsports leads, Bykolles surprises
Trackside, it was the Frenchman Tom Dillman who led first at the wheel of the Bykolles. But the driver jumped the start. The drive-through penalty relegated him to fifteenth place. His misadventure benefited several cars, depending on the pit stops. The professional e-sports teams were trailing at the beginning of the race before taking the lead around three hours in. At the front, Team Redline (Norris, Verstappen and sim racers Kherkhof and Huttu) was narrowly ahead of the Qatari team 2 Seas Motorsport (Al Khalifa, Rowland and sim racers MacDuff and Braune) and Veloce E-sport (Nato, Vandoorne and sim racers Murphy and Poradzisz).
The red flag reshuffled the deck. 2 Seas Motorsport found themselves in first position ahead of Team Redline and… Bykolles. The Austrian team, supported by simracers Simoncic and Pedersen, climbed onto the podium through aggressive overtakes, just ahead of the Argentine car from Toyota Gazoo Racing, driven notably by Nelson Piquet Jr.
Porsche in the lead
In GT, real or virtual, nothing changes. Porsche is in front. Long in the lead, the Dempsey Proton Racing #88 has fallen back, making way for the official Porsche #93 of Tandy, Guven, and sim racers Rogers and Ostgaard. Behind, the R8G Motorsport Corvette of Juncadella, Beche, and sim racers Jajovski and Capet follows, ahead of another official Porsche.
Charles Leclerc experienced problems in the pits while driving his Ferrari AF Corse. He is only in the eleventh position in the GT standings.
The red flag tightened the positions. Everything is almost to be redone.
