S.Setsaas With Double Podium Result in PESC Round 2!
Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya would host the second round of the Porsche Tag Heuer Esport Supercup, again featuring two drivers from the CoRe stable. Going into the second round, Sindre Setsaas would find himself in P11 in the standings, while Carl Jansson was situated in the 32nd position, after being the innocent victim in mid pack pile ups at Zandvoort last time out.
Just as last week proved, qualifying would be crucial in such a competitive series, and Setsaas managed an extremely impressive 7th position which would reverse to grid the Norwegian up in 2nd on for the opening race of the day, alongside Apex Racing Team’s Jarrad Filsell. An unfortunate off-track on Carl’s quickest lap saw him line up in 33rd, but race pace throughout the week had looked promising for the Swede. As the lights went out for the opening sprint race, Sindre managed to get the jump on Filsell, but a rapid start from Team Redline’s Max Benecke saw him jump the pair of them and take an early lead. With a controversial incident involving some of the championship favourites in Sebastian Job and Joshua Rogers, a leading pack of six drivers checked out from the mid-pack, including Setsaas in the second position behind Benecke. Jansson’s opening lap fortunes had turned from last time out, and Carl made up over 10 positions in the first lap and found himself well within the top 20. Things would only get better, as a fantastic overtake on Dane Marcus Jensen into turn 5 saw Carl rise to and finish P18, up an impressive 15 spots from where he started. Setsaas finished an incredible second position, after holding station behind Benecke and being able to put daylight between Filsell, Ostgaard and others behind. This would set Sindre up brilliantly for the feature race, which was double the duration in length.
The second race of the day would bring again some disappointment for Carl, as he would be an innocent party in a midpack shuffle and drop down to the back of the pack on the opening lap. Jansson however once again proved his strong race pace and climbed up to finish in 23rd place. Sindre’s fortunes were far more favourable, and after a clean get away found himself in 2nd position again behind Benecke. With one eye on the taste of the champagne, and the other eye in his mirrors, Sindre would heed caution against a rampaging Max Verstappen for second place. The remainder of the half an hour race would see Sindre come under intense pressure from Altus driver Dane Warren who had proven to be one of the quickest cars in the field. Setsaas withheld immense pressure from the Aussie and would come across the line to finish in 3rd position and achieve CoRe’s first World Championship podium in two years.
The championship standings now read pretty for the Norwegian, as Sindre finds himself in 4th position in the overall standings, while Carl unfortunately finds himself in P33. Both drivers will have a well-earned “break” next weekend before round three kicks off from the Donington Grand Prix circuit on May 23rd.
T.Gibson Grabs Victory in PESPC Barcelona Race!
There was a quick turnaround for the Porsche Esport Sprint Challenge series, with only one week in between the opening two rounds of the season. Frenchman Samuel Libeert was hoping to kick on from his strong P3 finish last time out at the Catalan circuit, while Thomas Gibson was looking for redemption after getting knocked out of the lead battle last time out. Thankfully, after strong results in the qualifying races during the week, the two CoRe drivers found themselves up at the sharp end again.
Gibson took an impressive pole position, just over half a tenth ahead of Evolution Racing Team’s Cooper Webster. Despite only being another half a tenth behind that, Libeert found himself lining up from the third row in 5th, after a slight error in the opening sector. Another short twenty-minute sprint to the flag would again prove to be frenetic, with Libeert unfortunately finding no space on the exit of the opening corner, resulting in a journey over the high sausage curbs, resulting in his Porsche 718 spinning and facing the wrong way on the exit of T1. Gibson on the other hand, held his nerve and tried to pull a gap in the opening laps but could not escape the clutches of Webster, Apex Racing’s Peter Berryman or SRC’s Camillo Pezzoli. As the race progressed, the young Australian tried all he could to throw off Gibson, but was to no avail and Thomas would cross the line to take a fantastic victory, with just over a second covering the first four positions.
Libeert would nurse his car home in the 26th position, but again can take positives from the impressive showing in qualifying. The standings now see Gibson rise to 2nd position just a solitary point behind compatriot Peter Berryman, while Libeert finds himself in 11th.
The broadcasts of races and heats of this Porsche Esports Super Cup and Porsche Esports Sprint Challenge round can be found here.