After a stunning pole lap, it’s the Swiss Steven Kasami who starts from pole for the first race of the 2022 eVirtual Championship! The K8ley driver finds himself starting ahead of some rapid drivers – including former Ocelot FV drivers Zvironas and Yoshida – while title favourites like Cesar and McLaughlin find themselves well out of position. 12 drivers start with a balanced strategy, including the top 4, as are Marcus Thunder, Cesar, Hudson, Einarsson, RDLF, Draper, Ellington and Milkovich. 9 have gone for attacking, noticeably both Mitsubishi’s, Porsche’s, Kiara Thunder, Bryski, Matthews, Holzberg and Ostberg. The rest – being Maxwell, both Jaguar’s, Brynildsen and Agostino – are on the efficient strategy. As the lights went out, the 26 cars roared away to begin the race and season. Kasami held onto the lead at first, but Zvironas set the fastest lap on lap 2, making his intentions clear. He harassed the pole sitter and on lap 4 stormed into the lead. The rest of the top 5 remained static, though behind Einarsson made up 2 places to make it a Manziel 1-6. Both Jaguar’s struggled off the start line with their slower battery mode, allowing Cesar to make up early ground. The first safety car of the season came out on lap 7 when Hudson’s car died and rolled to the infield, followed immediately by a sudden rim failure for Holzberg. The field was bunched up until lap 11, where it became clear that those who struggled in qualifying were recovering quickly – Cesar into 7th, McLaughlin 13th and M Thunder 15th. When the safety car came in, Zvironas was caught napping and Kasami attempted to retake the lead. While they were fighting, Yoshida swooped underneath them to go from 3rd to 1st. Behind, Cesar continued his rapid rise, past Einarsson and Davenport into 4th as K Thunder – along with the rest of the aggressive runners, pitted for their first stop of 5. Thunder behind had also dispatched of both Jaguar’s to move into the top 10. The balanced drivers were soon in on lap 17 and the efficient runners on lap 21. There were changes in the pit lane – Cesar jumped past Kasami but came out behind K Thunder, while Einarsson jumped Davenport. Maxwell dropped back due to pitting later while Bergkvist’s aggressive strategy put him in 9th ahead of the Downton, McLaughlin and M Thunder 11th and 12th. Zvironas had recovered after the pit stop and by lap 23, he was back past Yoshida with minimal issues. Kasami continued to fall back behind Einarsson, while M Thunder dispatched of both McLaughlin and Maxwell to reach the points. Arrow called on Davenport to let RDLF through as the Spaniard was showing good pace – and immediately squandered it with a high-speed spin on lap 27, dropping him behind Davenport and M Thunder. The aggressive runners were in on lap 28 for their second stops, with K Thunder coming out in 9th. Up front, Zvironas was furious when he felt Brynildsen had blocked him while trying to lap the Norwegian – allowing Yoshida to sneak back past. The Manziel driver however was quickly back past, even before the next round of pit stops. There was an even better move behind as Thunder overtook both Kasami and Davenport at the same time as the latter also overtook the polesitter. The balanced runners were in on lap 34 with minimal fuss, though a slow stop for Davenport let Kasami back through. Out of the pits, Yoshida was told to let Cesar past, in a bid to see if the Brazilian could stop Zvironas. Aggressive and efficient runners were all in on lap 42 at the halfway mark, K Thunder and Bergkvist coming back out in 9th and 10th, McLaughlin back in 12th. Maxwell and the two Jaguar’s meanwhile lined up 14th, 15th and 16th. M Thunder continued his rapid climb up the grid, moving past Einarsson into 4th by lap 45. At the next round of pit stops for balanced runners, on lap 50, a slow stop for Yoshida meant the Briton was now onto the podium after starting 18th. Behind, RDLF had overtaken Davenport and a quick turnaround in the pits put him ahead of Kasami – though the trio all returned to the track behind K Thunder, Bergkvist and McLaughlin. They were soon swapping around again, as Davenport dispatched on Kasami yet again. The penultimate pit stops for aggressive runners came on lap 56, with efficient runners pitting for the final time on lap 63, without any major issues, though time lost through the previous stint had left van Snelheid now behind Agostino. Things kicked off on lap 65 though as a spin from Draper at turn 2 left nowhere for Ostberg and Beckenbauer to go, as a major crash unfolded. None of the three were harmed but the cars were tangled on the infield, requiring a safety car. It caused a mess in the pits as all the balanced runners came in for the final time and had to drop right to the back – promoting K Thunder, McLaughlin, Bergkvist (the two swapping places beforehand) and Vocquelin into the lead, ahead of Maxwell, though the former 4 still had to pit again. Zvironas was now down to 12th, ahead of M Thunder who passed Cesar in the pits, Yoshida, Einarsson, the Arrow cars and Kasami. It was now a straight fight to the flag for the balanced and efficient runners. The safety car returned on lap 68 and Maxwell, Agostino and van Snelheid quickly took up the podium places as the aggressive runners pitted for the final time on lap 70 – though time lost by the balanced runners in traffic meant K Thunder was still 8th, McLaughlin and Bergkvist 9th and 10th. Among the balanced runners, M Thunder and Zvironas roared through the pack with Cesar further behind, while Yoshida struggled to clear many cars, Einarsson fell behind RDLF and Kasami dropped like a stone. Thunder had briefly got past Zvironas as he handled passing Brynildsen much better, but Zvironas returned the favour by taking him back as they reached van Snelheid, setting up an epic 10 lap shootout. Try as they might, the efficient cars couldn’t hold off Zvironas and M Thunder, the two into the lead with 7 laps left. Van Snelheid had found a new lease of pace after the safety car, however, as he dived past Agostino and then Maxwell. K Thunder had initially passed Cesar but a botched attempt on Agostino left her nearly in the wall and she backed off, allowing the Brazil back through – who stormed past the three efficient runners to take 3rd with 3 laps to go. All eyes were at the front however, as Zvironas and M Thunder set to fight it out for the win. Thunder took him back with 4 laps to go, only to run wide at the next corner and left Zvironas back past. The Downton tucked into the slipstream on the penultimate lap however, and even on the outside line was able to get back ahead – only for Zvironas to return the favour on the next lap, the pair running side by side through the last two corners. They flew across the line, neck and neck to the naked eye… but the timing screens showed Zvironas was ahead as the Manziel garage erupted in cheers. 2nd was no small feat for M Thunder however as he went from 18th to 2nd along with the fastest lap, ahead of Cesar who similarly recovered, but was disappointed not to live with the pace of the others at the end. Van Snelheid was delighted to hold onto 4th ahead of Maxwell and K Thunder who took good points but felt more was possible. Agostino lost out to the Renault at the end, but some excellent defending ensured Lamborghini would take away points in the opening race. McLaughlin and Bergkvist had to make do with 8th and 9th, with RDLF snatching the last point in 10th as a loss of power for Yoshida saw him drop out of the points at the end. Davenport was another to miss out on points have been in the top 10 for so long, while Kasami finished last but one, though 3 points for pole offer some consolidation for his team. The final results are below – we’ll see you next time in Shanghai, China.
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