After a long off season while the FV cars took the main stage across the world, the other tier 1 virtual motorsport series has returned to action – it’s the start of the second ever eVirtual season. Today, the drivers and teams took part in a test session around the famous Indianapolis oval track, marking the first ever eV event around an oval. In what was surely a wake up call for anyone still feeling the off-season blues, today saw a morning and afternoon session, with one car from each team taking part in both of them. Each session lasted 4 hours and drivers could go out for a 4 lap run, over which the average score was recorded. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get right into it! Day One morning sessionEarly driver catches track position... or something. And that applied today, as a couple of eager beavers lined up at the end of the pit lane just before the session started, once the lights went green, it was Britain’s Kip Maxwell who went out first, the returning Downton driver making history in this series. After the out lap he put together 4 steady but clean fast laps to clock out 180.632 on average, a decent return for a first go. Lamborghini got their first taste of eV next as the world famous Giani Ledesma took to the track - there was a big scare when he got a handful of oversteer coming out of turn 2 on his out lap but he kept in on the track and, with a solid performance, ended up only fractionally behind last year’s reigning champions. They continued to file out one by one, each team looking to see how they stacked up compared to the rest. Aron Einarsson topped Maxwell with a impressive performance from the Renault returnee, Jaguar’s Will Taylor split Maxwell and Ledesma, while newcomer Khaled al Shabbab was so far off the pace it seemed he was in a different formula. The rest came through without any major incidents - most notable performances were from Alexander McLaughlin who nearly pipped Einarsson, Enzo Domenicalli with an impressive run on K8ley's debut, Ethan Matthews who looked right at home in his OSM Racing car, and Jochem van Snelheid who tagged the barriers on his second lap. It was only a minor touch and no damage was done but the Dutchman was second slowest of all. The last two teams to get their first run in were two heavyweight outfits - Cerberus and Porsche. Felipe Cesar banged out a very impressive 4 lap run, looking like he was immediately pushing to the limit to early beat Einarsson for the top spot. Sebastian Bergkvist tried his best, but he could only slot directly in between the pair, with a nevertheless great 4 laps. With everyone now done with their first run, some teams elected to go out again while others tinkered with technical shebang on their cars. "The Dom" Zivronas was among them after a quiet first run. He pushed hard this time around in his Ferrari but a wobble on the third lap hampered his momentum and saw him just about beat Maxwell. Some others were pulling in some nice improvement however, such as Taylor who moved up to just behind McLaughlin and Einarsson. Also going well was Gabriele Garcia, who put together two solid runs which never saw him drop out of the top 10 - a fine return for Thunderhead after their horror season last year. On the other hand, home hero Sam Hudson struggled for Lada, as did BMW and Niklaus Holzberg - the German car not looking planted enough around the oval. Eventually all got a second run, and with about 30 minutes left, some cheeky drivers placed themselves nicely to get a third run in. Domenicalli saw himself improve up into sixth with a good run for an old man. Van Snelheid meanwhile continued to struggle as he looked to lack confidence after his earlier tap with the wall. Lewis Ellington bumped his Highwind back into the top ten while Cesar - the last man out – couldn’t improve. No one came close to him though, and he ended the first session on top, ahead of Bergkvist and Einarsson. McLaughlin and Taylor rounded out the top 5. Day One afternoon sessionThe drivers swapped with their team mates as the afternoon session began, with Arden Hutchinson getting his first taste of eVirtual machinery in the Jaguar. A huge snap on his third lap saw him abandon his first effort however, with fellow Austrian Stefan Klien replacing him on track. The Highwind driver set an average speed of 178.936 mph, equal to only 14th fastest in the first session and showing the track was lacking pace post-lunch. Other drivers attempted to topple Klien but couldn't, as first Romano Agostino, then Gerard Alaniz, then Ellenor Haugland all failed to match him before Viktor Ostberg put a new time at the top, beating Klien by just 0.065 mph. The slow track saw some of the bigger teams from 2020 reluctant to head out, until just over two and half hours into the session when - following a period of 30 minutes with no running - Ryota Yoshida smashed the fastest speed by over 3 mph to go top. A queue immediately formed in the pitlane as drivers rushed to set times, with first Steven Kasami slotting into second and then Klien improving his earlier time to go third. From there, every driver improved on their earlier laps, but no-one could knock Yoshida off the top spot, Maserati Cerberus seeming to have judged the conditions to perfection, until Porsche Signature and Sebastien Vocquelin took to the track. Team mate Bergkvist showed strong pace in the morning, but Vocquelin went one better, toppling Yoshida by nearly 0.6mph to go top with 35 minutes remaining. More drivers came and went but few failed to improve until Oleksandr Zozulya jumped his Downton McLaren to third on the penultimate run before clearing the track to allow Vocquelin a chance to go even quicker to end oval testing. The time looked good for the Frenchman after two laps, but his third lap slipped away and pushing too hard on his final tour, the back end got away from him at turn three and the eVirtual world saw for the first time how brutal a mistake can be on an oval. Vocquelin's car smeared down the outside barrier, eventually stopping just shy of turn four. He climbed from the car unaided and uninjured, but left Porsche Signature significant repairs to carry out overnight. Mitsubishi also have work to do as Naomi Michiko was limited to just one run, after which her car developed a battery issue the team struggled to solve. Day One combinedOverall, Vocquelin's effort was enough to see him pip Cesar to the top time as Porsche Signature and Maserati Cerberus dominated the top four positions.
Enzo Domenicalli was the only driver from a new team to feature in the top ten, which was rounded out by a greatly improved performance from Thunderhead - with Garcia in ninth - and a somewhat disappointed Downton team, the reigning teams champions managing only tenth with Zozulya and 15th with Kip Maxwell. The bottom half of the time sheets saw a number of the new outfits to the series, with the two Nakley Toyota cars and Michiko's ailing Mitsubishi propping up the leaderboard, nearly one full mph slower than anyone else and some 5mph off of Vocquelin.
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