Jarno Opmeer was crowned champion of the Aramco-presented F1 Esports Series Pro Championship 2021 on Thursday, adding to his first title in 2020. Just like in 2020, Red Bull’s Frede Rasmussen was hot on his heels, and in the end the pair were only divided by eight points.
Rasmussen was 21 points behind the last race, but a terrific victory in 10th place – certainly his best in the series so far – reduced the gap to a single-digit number. Lucas Blakeley, who retired from the race for the drivers’ title on Wednesday evening, took second place on the podium, while Sebastian Job from AlphaTauri completed the podium.
HOW IT HAPPENED: The title-winning final of the F1 Esports Pro Championship 2021
Action on Wednesday
The first two races of the Grand Final took drivers to two wild races to Imola and Mexico City, culminating in the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Esports Team winning the team championship for the first time since 2018.
FDA’s David Tonizza took victory in race one at Imola after longtime race director Josh Idowu fell off the road on the final lap. In Mexico, Opmeer fought several rounds with Bari Boroumand and Rasmussen before he emerged victorious for the fourth time of the season.
Get all the info on Wednesday’s action here and check out the highlights of Race 10 and Race 11 of the championship.
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This is Brazil
The story repeated itself in qualifying when Alpine’s Nicolas Longuet took pole position for the legendary Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. Longuet started on the soft tires and created a powerful vanishing point and built a solid lead from the start.
Championship challengers Opmeer and Rasmussen started from P4 and P10 respectively, with the Dane moving up to ninth place at the end of the first lap. Opmeer was soon thrown back to P5 when the fast starting Alvaro Carreton sailed past as the only other rider to start on the softs.
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Carreton was not one to shy away from a challenge and then just two laps later at Turn 1 drove an excellent double overtaking maneuver on Blakeley and Kiefer, finishing in second place. It quickly took the lead on lap 8 when Longuet, Kiefer, Blakeley and Co pitted – and put on soft tires that had to last until lap 25. They all soon found themselves behind Simon Weigang and couldn’t move until lap 14.
After overtaking Weigang, Kiefer soon overtook Blakeley in the lead and set about playing the team game, buying time for teammate Rasmussen and parking his Red Bull at each tip until Rasmussen eventually pits. After his start in the middle of the park, only a dream strategy would work for him. Almost the entire field had to pit before finally pitting on lap 15 to remove his tortured medium-sized tires. With a fresh set of softs for the last 10 laps, Rasmussen’s pace was absolutely electrifying.
2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship Event 4: Round 12 Highlights, Brazil
He finished 13th but quickly set about overtaking everyone on his way: Cedric Thome, Brendon Leigh, Weigang, Fabrizio Donoso and Joni Tormala were all done within two laps. Boroumand crashed off the road, bringing Rasmussen to P7, and Carreton’s aging Medium tires were no match for the soft tires – Frede found himself back to P6 with seven laps to go.
On lap 19, Blakeley led ahead of Longuet, Kiefer, Job and Opmeer, with Rasmussen acting on them all. Blakeley drove into the distance, but the following five cars clustered around the tight Ferradura corner. Kiefer walked more slowly into the corner, stopping Ompeer and letting Rasmussen pass them both.
This was a nightmare for Opmeer, who now followed his championship rival on the road – but with a buffer of 21 points, he only had to hold a P8 or higher to guarantee the championship. Rasmussen overtook Job and Longuet over the next two laps to keep within striking distance of Blakeley and struck on the final lap when he took the final win of the season at sunset in 2021.
However, it wasn’t enough for Rasmussen and Opmeer finished fourth to take the driver’s crown. Behind Rasmussen was Blakeley, with Job taking his first podium in the series ahead of Opmeer and Idowu. Matthijs van Erven finished sixth and scored the first points of the season for the Uralkali Haas F1 Esports Team in the last race. Longuet crossed the finish line in seventh place after a penalty loop, Carreton, Cedric Thome and Thijmen Schutte rounded off the last points of the season.
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Table position
With Jarno Opmeer and Mercedes in the lead, they will take home most of the $ 750,000 prize pool. In the drivers’ championship, Rasmussen made it to second place three years in a row – joked during the broadcast that he would rather be “second” in 2022 than win 100 points.
Bari Boroumand put a fantastic 98 points on the board and will definitely be an eye-catcher in 2022. Former title contenders Tonizza, Kiefer and Longuet struggled to enter the championship race and are hoping for more next time.
In the team standings, it was a highly competitive affair between Red Bull and Mercedes, reflecting the battles on the track of 2021. Aston Martin took third place, the FDA, Alpine and McLaren Shadow separated only a few points from each other. After scoring a goal in the last race, Haas is making sure there are points for every team this season.
The 2021 F1 Esports Series Pro Championship presented by Aramco will therefore go down in history. We hope you will be there next year! In the meantime, keep an eye on social media as we walk through the Challengers who decide on the pool of talent that could be available for selection next year.
More details about the Pro Championship – and everything about F1 Esports – can be found in the official F1 sport Page? ˅.
