Max Verstappen’s incredible overtaking maneuver in the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans

F1 World Champion Max Verstappen brilliantly overtook James Baldwin in Saturday’s virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The driver drove for longtime esports team Redline and led the race for a few hours before retiring. Watch the clip below:

Verstappen missed pole position by just 0.002s earlier in the virtual version of the prestigious event. However, he quickly took the lead in the first corners of the race before eventually crashing.

The Dutchman impressed the sim racing world by showing off his tremendous world champion braking skills. He hit the brakes just yards ahead of James Baldwin, who represents Veloce Esports.

F1 drivers like Max Verstappen need to have tremendous control over their braking. Given the downforce levels of F1 cars, tremendous pressure is required to apply the brakes. Also, the brake pedals are hard because sporting regulations require all braking effort to be applied by the driver alone, so there can be no power assistance.

Max Verstappen claims sim racing helped his career

Max Verstappen joined a group of elite drivers by winning his first F1 world title at Abu Dhabi. Despite being the king of the track, the Dutchman claims that virtual sim racing has helped him bolster his real-world races. In an interview with personal sponsor CarNext, the champion praised sim racers for their speed in the virtual world:

“It’s very interesting to see them drive because they don’t have any real experience with a car, but somehow when you look at how they brake, how they control, it’s how it should be. It’s very interesting for me then to compare myself to them because they’re naturally fast in the sim, I’m obviously fast in real life. For me it’s another motivation because I know that if I want to jump in a real car I’m confident that I’ll be fast.”

The driver often indulges in his hobby of racing in the virtual world and claims that it helps him set up his real racing cars. He said:

“That keeps me ready to go because I also spend a lot of time with the set-up. I don’t drive a Formula 1 car in the simulator, but it’s like GT cars, so it’s a different driving technique too. I just keep testing myself and especially these sim drivers…they are so fast!”

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