Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Leclerc is also a winner for Ferrari on the virtual racetrack

Published 05/04/2020, 23:07
Updated 05/04/2020, 23:10
© Reuters. Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix

© Reuters. Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Ferrari (NYSE:RACE)'s Charles Leclerc was a dominant winner on his Formula One esports debut on Sunday while World Cup-winning England cricketer Ben Stokes brought up the rear in a virtual Vietnam Grand Prix.

The 28-lap race was the second in a series organised to provide some entertainment for fans starved of real-life action due to the new coronavirus pandemic that has stalled most sport worldwide.

Sunday was originally scheduled to be the inaugural Vietnam Grand Prix but the virtual race, with the 20 drivers joining remotely from their homes, was staged on a version of Melbourne's Albert Park.

The Hanoi street circuit is not yet available on the official F1 video game.

"It was unbelievably hard," said Leclerc, who led from start to finish and took the chequered flag 14.094 seconds clear of Danish Renault (PA:RENA) junior Christian Lundgaard with Williams (NYSE:WMB) F1 driver George Russell in third place.

"We are sitting on a chair, so there is not even the G-force we have in a real car, but I am sweating like crazy," added the Monegasque, winner of two races last year in his first season with Ferrari.

"The muscles are not hurting but the concentration and everything, I've been sweating a lot."

Leclerc's 19-year-old brother Arthur was fourth for Ferrari, just ahead of Italian Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi.

Lundgaard would have started on pole but was given a five-place drop for exceeding track limits in qualifying.

Jenson Button, the retired 2009 world champion, was 11th with McLaren team mate Lando Norris failing to start due to technical problems for the second race running and Mexican Esteban Gutierrez also absent.

Norris's Twitch streaming platform still had more than 77,000 viewers at its peak while more than 190,000 watched Formula One's official livestream on YouTube.

Stokes finished last, behind retired grand prix winner Johnny Herbert, but the all-rounder acquitted himself well in a field with six current F1 drivers and gave a cheerful thumbs up from his living room.

China's Guanyu Zhou, winner of the first race for Renault on a virtual Bahrain layout, did not compete.

The next official virtual race is the Chinese Grand Prix on April 19.

© Reuters. Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix

Formula One is hoping to resume racing for real with a reduced 15-18 round calendar from the European summer, subject to the spread of the virus.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.