Carroll and Heinrich claim victory at the third event of the VCO ProSim Series 17.12.2020: • Red Bull Racing Esports driver Graham Carroll and real-world Pro Laurin Heinrich win the ‘Championship Race’ on the ‘Suzuka Circuit’. • Maximilian Benecke and Lorenzo Colombo cross the line first but fall back to ninth place after a retrospective t

• Red Bull Racing Esports driver Graham Carroll and real-world Pro Laurin Heinrich win the ‘Championship Race’ on the ‘Suzuka Circuit’.


• Maximilian Benecke and Lorenzo Colombo cross the line first but fall back to ninth place after a retrospective time penalty is imposed.


• Victory in the ‘Fun Race’ at the ‘Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps’ goes to Patrik Holzmann.
 

Graham Carroll and Laurin Heinrich have celebrated their first win of the season in the ‘Championship Race’ at the third event of the VCO ProSIM SERIES organised by the Virtual Competition Organisation (VCO).


The result moves Heinrich into the lead in the overall standings for real-world Pros, while Carroll tops the championship for Esports racers. Previous leader Maximilian Benecke and Lorenzo Colombo were first to cross the finish line but received a retrospective 20-second time penalty due to a rule infringement during the pit stop.



The ‘Fun Race’ this time took place in the Dallara iR-01 formula car, recently developed by iRacing. Patrik Holzmann claimed victory on the circuit at Spa-Francorchamps.
 



FUN RACE:

It was uncharted territory for the Esports racers in the ‘Fun Race’ on the ‘Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps’. They had the pleasure of competing against one another in the new Dallara iR-01 formula car, recently developed by iRacing, which will star in its own world championship next year.


The car is extremely fast, providing plenty of downforce and slipstream on the straights. Graham Carroll secured pole position with a time of 1:43.770 minutes in qualifying. It was Maximilian Benecke who made the best start to the race and took the lead while a mass pile-up led to action and early retirements in the midfield.



Patrik Holzmann moved into first place and was able to build up a decisive lead as the race continued. His Red Bull Racing Esports team-mate Sebastian Job finished behind him in second place. Third place was secured by Maarten van Loozenoord from the R8G Esports team.
 


Patrik Holzmann (Red Bull Racing Esports): “Driving this car was great fun. It is so much faster than the other cars on iRacing. We waited a long time for it to be available and iRacing really did a superb job. It is always tough to beat Sebastian Job; we were team-mates for a long time. I gave my all and I am delighted that I was able to keep him behind me.”
 



Pole position:
Graham Carroll (Red Bull Racing Esports) 1:43.770 mins
 




Race result (top ten):

1st place: Patrik Holzmann (Red Bull Racing Esports)
2nd place: Sebastian Job (Red Bull Racing Esports) +1.162 secs
3rd place: Maarten van Loozenoord (R8G Esports) +2.190
4th place: Graham Carroll (Red Bull Racing Esports) +3,114
5th place: Simone Maria Marcenò (Altus Esports) +11.927
6th place: Jeremy Bouteloup (Coanda Simsport) +12.173
7th place: Joshua Rogers (Coanda Simsport) +12.938
8th place: Cooper Webster (Altus Esports) +16.158
9th place: Yannick Lapchin (Altus Esports) +17.398
10th place: Maximilian Benecke (Team Redline) +19.775
 
 



CHAMPIONSHIP RACE:


Once again, fans on the VCO Twitter feed were able to choose the racetrack for the ‘Championship Race’. More than 37,000 votes were cast, with ‘Suzuka Circuit’ claiming 65.7 percent. Pole position on the famous Formula 1 circuit went to real-world Pro Lorenzo Colombo, who shared the Dallara F3 with Maximilian Benecke.


He was able to defend his lead at the start but was then forced to let Laurin Heinrich past. After the pit stops at the halfway point of the race, Graham Carroll and Maximilian Benecke took over the cars from Heinrich and Colombo. Benecke was able to close up on Carroll and overtake him. A series of drive-through penalties due to rule infringements during the pit stop caused chaos throughout the field.



Having been racing in third place, Philipp Eng and Sebastian Job were knocked back to eleventh. Alexey Nesov and Patrik Holzmann moved into third position. After the race, the pair moved up to second place and Heinrich and Carroll were declared the winners as Benecke and Colombo had also received a 20-second time penalty due to the pit stop offence. Felix Luding and Raoul Hyman were then classified in third place.
 


Graham Carroll (Red Bull Racing Esports): “To come away with the win is mega. After back-to-back P4s so far this season we wanted to be on the podium this time. Now even having won the race is awesome. Laurin did a great job qualifying in P2 and getting into the lead of the race. Hopefully we can do a similar job again next time.”
 



Pole position:
Lorenzo Colombo 1:53.179 mins
 


Race result (top 10):

1st place: Heinrich / Carroll (Red Bull Racing Esports)
2nd place: Nesov / Holzmann (Red Bull Racing Esports) +2.761 secs
3rd place: Hyman / Luding (SimRC) +4.976
4th place: Karam / Bakkum (Coanda Simsport) +5.409
5th place: Spengler / Krönke (Coanda Simsport) +5.743
6th place: Trogen / Böttcher (Williams Esports) +12.607
7th place: Bortolotti / Setsaas (CoRe SimRacing) +13.164
8th place: Bölükbasi / Nemethi (Race Clutch) +15.090
9th place: Colombo / Benecke (Team Redline) +17.855
10th place: R. Barrichello / Frank (SimRC) +17.953
 


 
ALEXANDER MEY  photos @VCOESPORTS