F1 Esports Round 1: Blakeley reigns in Bahrain!

Starting from pole position, Lucas Blakeley had a very good start by managing to keep Thomas Ronhaar’s Haas behind him. The Dutch driver was the big loser of the first lap. Indeed, by the end of the first sector, he found himself in fourth position after being overtaken by Bari Boroumand and the reigning world champion, Jarno Opmeer. The top three in the race were in the exact same positions they had finished in the last PSGL season.

After a relatively calm first half of the race, it was during the pit stops that the drivers decided to get aggressive. On the 14th lap, Marcel Kiefer and Nicolas Longuet overtook the cars in front of them to respectively take the 9th and 7th position. Despite being two drivers with numerous podiums and victories under their belt, both men had not performed well in qualifying and had seen themselves outside the Top 15. These two underperformances show how much the physics of the game has changed between F1 22 and its predecessor and its impact on the hierarchy among simracers.

Seeing that the undercut was working well, Bari Boroumand, Thomas Ronhaar, and Frederik Rasmussen dove into the pit lane hoping to overtake the leader, Blakeley. Blocked in the pits, the McLaren driver was passed by Haas. While Lucas Blakeley pitted one lap later, Jarno Opmeer decided to delay his stop. The Scottish driver emerged from the pits alongside Ronhaar.

The latter was trying to overtake the former Aston Martin driver on the outside of the first turn. Pushed onto the kerb, not only did the overtaking attempt fail, but it allowed Bari Boroumand to overtake both rivals. Rasmussen, Blakeley, and Ronhaar approached the fourth turn three abreast. Taking a wrong trajectory and running onto the kerb, the Danish driver’s Red Bull skidded onto the Haas, resulting in contact between the two drivers, but more importantly, breaking the Dutchman’s wing. After starting in second position and managing to stay in the top 5 during the first part of the race, the rookie’s point chances evaporated.

This rather messy battle allowed Jarno Opmeer to virtually take the lead of the race in the 17th lap. 4 laps later, Bari Boroumand dove inside the first corner to get ahead of the Dutchman. The McLaren driver didn’t hesitate to push his opponent off the track in order to facilitate the overtake for his teammate. However, this didn’t prevent Lucas Blakeley from overtaking his new teammate shortly after to regain the lead of the race. With fresher tires, Jarno Opmeer slammed on his brakes approaching the first corner of the final lap to take second position from Boroumand.

Having won in Bahrain in 2021 with Aston Martin, Lucas Blakeley wins for the second consecutive time the opening round of the 2022 F1 Esports season. The Scot is in great form lately, as he had already shown his very good speed by winning the championship title at PSGL. Jarno Opmeer finished in 2nd position and Bari Boroumand in 3rd position.

Beautiful race also from Simon Weigang, who, after a very challenging 2021 season where the German driver was rewarded with only 10 points, the new Aston Martin driver finishes the first race of this new season in fourth position, earning 12 points. It is also worth noting the comeback of Nicolas Longuet, who managed to climb up the field towards the end of the race to finish in 8th position. The Frenchman gained 10 positions from his starting grid.