With the competition heating up, the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Esports Team secured valuable points in the Constructors’ Championship during the second week or racing.
As John Evans made his debut and Simon Weigang pushed to continue his points streak, the drivers tackled three European classics.
Race Four: Red Bull Ring
Simon had a great qualifying session, working his way into the top 10 shootout and bagging a top-five starting position – only 44 thousandths off pole position. John, meanwhile, had a strong debut qualifying, finishing 11th, missing out on Q3 by only four hundredths of a second.
Rain poured down for the start of the race, which added to the drama. Simon was pushed wide ion Turn One, only managing to hold off Nicolas Longuet for a few more corners, with Lucas Blakeley also slipping through near the end of the lap. This pushed Simon down to seventh as the rain cleared up, and the DRS trains formed.
John had a decent opening lap, losing only one position, and holding off Matthijs van Erven to keep 12th place. He was overtaken before the pitstop, and lost time due to double stack. He emerged in 16th, moving up to 14th once the rest of the stops had been completed.
Simon pitted on lap 14 for Medium tyres, but a game glitch meant he ended up with Hard tyres. He also lost two positions on the pit exit, and picked up a penalty for track limits. He lost out to Marcel Kiefer and Dani Moreno after some lengthy fights, leaving him in 11th.
On the very last lap, both Simon and John pushed hard and managed to make some late passes to finish in 10th and 13th respectively. Simon's penalty was removed by the stewards post-race and he therefore brought home a point for the team.
Race Five: Spa-Francorchamps
Simon had another strong qualifying as he fought his way through to Q3, securing himself eighth on the starting grid. John had technical difficulties during his Q1 run forcing him to use an extra set of tyres, compromising his Q2 and meaning he finished 14th.
Quick off the line, John overtook Dani Bereznay on the first corner to move up to 13th. As the lap progressed, he lost out to the Medium-shod runners and started lap two in 16th. Making full use of DRS, he moved up past Sipos on lap 14 to take 15th position.
A mistake on the last lap and a post-game penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage meant he fell to 18th.
Aston Martin brings home points the 2022 opener
The F1 Esports Pro Championship is back and the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Esports Team got off to a great start, securing double figures in the constructors' standings.
Simon started eighth and managed to hold his position as everyone battled on lap one. Pitting on lap 11, he unfortunately lost two positions and emerged in 10th.
Falling into another DRS train, he kept the pace to cross the line inside the top 10 and bring home a crucial point for the Constructors’ Championship.
Race Six: Zandvoort
Qualifying was unbelievably close, Simon and John were fifth and 11th respectively in Q1 with two minutes to go.
Although John improved his lap time, with the gap between the top 17 drivers was only one tenth of a second, it wasn’t enough to progress to Q2. He lined up 19th on the grid, with Simon in 17th.
John started on the Wet tyres, while Simon was on the Intermediates. Pushing through the chaos, John moved up eight positions to 11th by the end of lap one. The rain began to ease off and he moved up to third as people started to pit.
After picking up wing damage on the first lap, he started to fall down positions as he struggled to keep up with drivers on fresh Intermediate tyres. After his pitstop, he emerged in 20th and in his final laps pushed up to finish 19th.
Simon sat in 18th by the end of lap one, after selecting Wet tyres instead of Intermediates, and he struggled to catch the drivers ahead. He pitted for Medium tyres on lap 19 and pushed in the later laps to finish 17th.
Simon Weigang, Driver, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Esports Team: "Starting race one in fifth felt good, but I didn’t have much luck after that. Being pushed wide as well as game glitches caused me to lose positions around Austria and Belgium so I recovered well to finish 10th at both of those tracks.
Overall it was a promising event, I feel like we can be fighting for top three or even pole but the details and knowledge of the game were missing as well as some race pace. We know what we need to work on ahead of event three."
John Evans, Driver, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Esports Team: "To get 11th in qualifying in my first ever session was a good start but then unfortunately things didn’t work out for us over the event.
"Technical difficulties in Belgium qualifying made it hard to climb back up and get points in the race, whilst at Zandvoort weather conditions led to damage due to a collision in front of me. It felt like nothing went my way this event, but we will keep pushing for event three."
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