It was a dominant Saturday at Paul Ricard for WRT, at least in the virtual world, with South African driver Kelvin van der Linde proving why he is a sim racing ace at the Paul Ricard round of the FANATEC SRO ESports GT Pro Series, leading from lights to flag at the virtual rendition of the Le Castellet based venue in the No. 32 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo.
It was an Audi vs. McLaren at the start of the race with the No. 32 WRT Audi defending from the No. 38 JOTA McLaren while the rest of the field was going into crazy mode at the first two corners, with most drivers either spinning, crashing or going off to avoid carnage.
Everything was going smooth for leader Kelvin van der Linde, but a server issue forced a red flag, a server reset and the restart of the race from the 15 minute mark. It was the No. 32 WRT Audi in the lead, with Matteo Cairoli opting for trailing van der Linde instead of making a move, while behind them was Nicolas Varrone in the No. 33 Rinaldi Ferrari, leading the Silver Cup and with more worries behind him than in front, as the rest of the Silver Cup top-4 was in pursuit.
Varrone managed to settle things in his class as he passed Cairoli, putting a Pro Cup car between the Silver Cup contenders, but the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche gave a quick response by passing at the home straight, leaving the No. 33 as prey for the close opposition.
Varrone’s fight with Cairoli brought Phillip Ellis along, and with both Silver Cup leaders trying to pass the Italian, Ellis on the inside found Cairoli in the middle, they tangled at Signes and Marvin Dienst in the No. 7 Toksport Mercedes. If there was good news for Cairoli, they were that he was still second in Pro Cup, but fourth overall with a considerable margin to leader Kelvin van der Linde.
Eventually both class leaders gone away from the chasing pack, especially as the No. 54 got busy fighting with the No. 7 for third overall, which gave to Varrone the room to push. Cairoli fell to fifth, and with a drive through penalty due to the contact with Ellis, his race was largely compromised.
The pit window actually gave places to Cairoli, but also gave Daniel Juncadella all over his back wing, and the argy bargy between the Pro Cup competitors brought Silver Cup race Marvin Dienst to the mix, although the German was soon disposed by Cairoli in an unfortunate contact with nine minutes to go, although the No. 7 was still second in Silver Cup despite the incident.
With the amount of battles behind, Kelvin van der Linde didn’t see a single threat to his lead, having just to keep a decent pace to get the checkered, while Nicolas Varrone came in second to win the Silver Cup in similar fashion.
SRO ESports GT Pro - Paul Ricard race results
Arthur Rougier and Daniel Juncadella lead the standings with 4 points but van der Linde is just behind with 3 points in the Pro Cup. The No. 33 Rinaldi Ferrari, shared by Benjamin Hites and Nicolas Varrone, leads the Silver Cup with 4 points, and Ryuichiro Tomita and Ezequiel Perez Companc share the second place with 3 points.
The next FANATEC SRO ESports GT Pro round will be during the 24 Hours of Spa week.
IMAGE: SRO/Xynamic
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