Charles Leclerc controlled proceedings in the second virtual grand prix, winning as he pleased from pole position.
The Ferrari driver said he was “sweating like crazy” on his way to victory in the 29-lap race around the Albert Park using F1 2019.Renault driver Christian Lundgaard rose from sixth on the grid to finish second, but fell to over 10 seconds behind the winner over the half real distance race. George Russell took third place for Williams a further 16 seconds behind.
Leclerc briefly had held a one-two with brother and virtual team mate Arthur, who held second early in proceedings before slipping back. He fought back to take fourth place off Antonio Giovinazzi in the closing stages. Stoffel Vandoorne took sixth for Mercedes.
Louis Deletraz crashed his Haas twice on the way to seventh place, once while trying to overtake Giovinazzi. Albon collected eighth ahead of Jimmy Broadbent. Deletraz’s Haas team mate Pietro Fittipaldi lost 10th place on the final lap when he crashed, promoting Nicholas Latifi.
The opening stages of the race were as frantic in the first event on Bahrain International Circuit two weeks ago. Alexander Albon, Johnny Herbert and Nunzio Tudisco all crashed at turn 12 on the first lap.
Lando Norris and Esteban Gutierrez were unable to start due to technical problems.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Starting grid
| Starting position | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| 2 | George Russell | Williams |
| 3 | Louis Deletraz | Haas |
| 4 | Arthur Leclerc | Ferrari |
| 5 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull |
| 6 | Christian Lundgaard | Renault |
| 7 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams |
| 8 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo |
| 9 | Stoffel Vandoorne | Mercedes |
| 10 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Haas |
| 11 | Luca Salvadori | AlphaTauri (Toro Rosso) |
| 12 | Jenson Button | McLaren |
| 13 | Andre Heimgartner | Renault |
| 14 | Nunzio Tudisco | AlphaTauri (Toro Rosso) |
| 15 | Jimmy Broadbent | Racing Point |
| 16 | Ben Stokes | Red Bull |
| 17 | Anthony Davidson | Racing Point |
| 18 | Johnny Herbert | Alfa Romeo |
| DNS | Lando Norris | McLaren |
| DNS | Esteban Gutierrez | Mercedes |
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Race result
| Finishing position | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari |
| 2 | Christian Lundgaard | Renault |
| 3 | George Russell | Williams |
| 4 | Arthur Leclerc | Ferrari |
| 5 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo |
| 6 | Stoffel Vandoorne | Mercedes |
| 7 | Louis Deletraz | Haas |
| 8 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull |
| 9 | Jimmy Broadbent | Racing Point |
| 10 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams |
| 11 | Jenson Button | McLaren |
| 12 | Luca Salvadori | AlphaTauri (Toro Rosso) |
| 13 | Nunzio Tudisco | AlphaTauri (Toro Rosso) |
| 14 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Haas |
| 15 | Anthony Davidson | Racing Point |
| 16 | Andre Heimgartner | Renault |
| 17 | Johnny Herbert | Alfa Romeo |
| 18 | Ben Stokes | Red Bull |
| DNS | Lando Norris | McLaren |
| DNS | Esteban Gutierrez | Mercedes |
Go ad-free for just £1 per month
>> Find out more and sign up
2020 F1 season
- Pictures: Wrecked chassis from Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball crash to go on display
- Bottas vs Rosberg: Hamilton’s Mercedes team mates compared after 78 races each
- F1 revenues fell by $877 million in Covid-struck 2020 season
- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
BlueChris (@bluechris)
5th April 2020, 21:30
Even though the race is decided since Lelcerc got away at the start and he didn’t do many mistakes, i really like his interview later that he said when they asked him when he got the game, he said last Sunday and from that moment on he practiced 4-5 hours per day and he enjoyed it a lot.
To me this is good not only for us but for the real drivers also, because they can practice with real opponents and keep alive their racing mind.
Its a game but its not so easy to go out and drive consistent lap after lap without making mistakes.
A positive feeling from my side for sure and im waiting the next one.
BlueChris (@bluechris)
5th April 2020, 21:48
Here is the race from Leclerc Stream in twitch where you can see replay of the race.
sato113 (@sato113)
5th April 2020, 22:22
Would be great for Lando to get to the root of his game crashing issues.
Also if someone could fashion up a championship table for the first 2 races
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
6th April 2020, 11:23
@sato113 He’s uninstalled F1 2019, hopefully in an attempt to troubleshoot.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
5th April 2020, 22:42
I watched some of the driver’s streams on Twitch, and enjoyed that, especially when the driver seemed to have a coach on hand. It was interesting to see Charles Leclerc was getting “instructions for the pitwall” in Italian. I have watched some of the race on Youtube as well. Overall I think this is a far better effort than the last one. I noticed that in the pre-Qualifying interviews some drivers actually had a team shirt on, so well done to Mercedes, Williams, and Haas and those drivers for sorting that out. While this isn’t the kind of exposure a team’s sponsors were expecting, it is still exposure. I don’t have time right now to watch the rest of the race or to go through the streams on Twitch, but overall I think this is a much better effort than the last one.
I luv chicken
5th April 2020, 22:52
At some point the sim racing is taking over our memories and mixing with actual races. This race will be remembered as an example of Ferrari dominance, Button’s smooth approach, Lando’s potential, and some of the the F1 regulars making the same mistakes as in real racing. Credit to the gamers who could probably race well in today’s real cars. And now, after 2 races, it’s starting to blur together.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th April 2020, 7:31
A Williams at the front of the field in 2nd place on the start, not a common feature these days.
Sumedh
6th April 2020, 9:40
Haha, technical troubles affect sim-racing. I thought they disabled brakedowns, no?
Proteus (@proteus)
6th April 2020, 9:50
What kind of amateurs are this? Give them simulation damage and a full race distance. If they cant play it this way, then it is time for them to consider a retirement.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
6th April 2020, 11:22
Charles Leclerc missed qualifying due to technical problems (though this made for an amusing start to his Twitch stream). He’d turned up early enough that he and some other early arrivals were given a short non-televised (but Twitch-streamed) practise session. Charles was the last to exit it (it looked like it was only when other drivers messaged him that he knew unofficial practise was over) and then never got the invite to join qualifying. So, strictly speaking, it was Charles-bot who got pole. Charles got into the race OK, just before Lando Norris dropped out.
It does worry me a little that the commentators apparently never noticed the difference (or if they did notice, never commented on it). It also worries me that this means 50% of the actual F1 drivers had significant technical issues, to the point of not being able to participate in at least one of the sessions in this race. That’s not the sort of reliability rate that will encourage others to join in, or teams to make it a requirement. It’s almost like F1 2019 cannot handle a full grid of human players, suggesting F1 2019 simply isn’t reliable enough to be the eSports platform. This needs patching as soon as possible. Not that Codemasters will find that easy, given they’re working from home…
Balue (@balue)
7th April 2020, 13:56
You are kidding, right? Leclerc sat out qualifying but a robot got pole for him, and that was the basis for the race and no one said a word?
Hal
6th April 2020, 14:02
When you see what indycar and Nascar are doing with a real simulator (iRacing) and the support of TV broadcast… F1 is ridiculous… again. I don’t get how f1 and Liberty Media can be so out of they depth. All these talk about the crisis and consequences on team but they cannot even organise a proper Online race. No excuses.
Balue (@balue)
6th April 2020, 19:12
Tell me when they change platform. I’ll be watching then.