Premier victory for the Racing Lounge Munich and new leader in the Racer League
Michal Smidl wins the 7th Challenge in Spa and with it prize money of 2,500 Swiss francs. He is not only back at the top but also marks the first victory of a driver in the Munich Racing Lounge.
Entertaining Challenger League Race!
There was already a lot going on in the Challenger League in the morning. The largest starting field of the Challenger League so far, with a total of 28 cars, offered the best entertainment with thrilling slipstream duels and wheel-to-wheel battles. But one of them had nothing to do with it.
The winner, Javier Loro, took an unchallenged start-finish victory with a 30-second lead. The young Spaniard benefited from several collisions of his rivals Marcos Valverde and David Cid. The two chasers in the championship dropped back after a chaotic start. Cid worked his way back up from 15th place to third with a strong recovery. Valverde had further incidents and ended up sixth.
Again a Swiss Racer on the Challenger League podium
However, Cid's good chase was not enough for the Spanish double victory. Gian Teufen took second place again after second place in Silverstone and thus his third podium finish. With both Valverde and Cid behind him, he continues to make up ground in the championship and is now only 11 points behind 2nd place in 4th overall!
Javier Loro now leads the championship by 23 points. A good cushion with three races remaining. "But I don't want to talk about the title yet, you never know what will happen in the next races," Loro makes clear.
Smidl back on top of the ladder
The Racer League started with a bang. The leader Sanchez was hit by his compatriot Lopez in the first corner and lost some traction out of the first corner. The beneficiary of this incident was Smidl, who started the race in 3rd place. He took the lead and did not relinquish it until the end.
Sanchez, who then went off the track at the end of the Kemmel straight, did not choose a good line when coming back and hit the car of the third Spaniard Maranon. For this, he received a drive-through penalty and was ultimately classified in 9th place. As a result, the race winner Smidl is now also the championship leader with a 6-point lead over Sanchez. It also means the first victory for the Munich Racing Lounge.
Second place went to Christoph Holstein, who benefited from a penalty against Lopez. The Swiss thus takes his second podium finish in his third race and moves up to 7th place in the standings, which he shares with third-placed Lopez.
Monza lays ahead and more!
After the competition in Spa, the race in Monza continues on 24 October. But there is already the next highlight of Racing Unleashed. At 5:30 p.m., a talk session will be held on the livestream platform Twitch on the topic of sim racing vs. real racing. Guests will include former Formula 1 driver Karl Wendlinger and sim racer Moritz Löhner, who is now getting a taste of real motorsport in the DTM Trophy.