The race report of the eighth Challenge: Spa

He makes things exciting once again! Alejandro Sanchez was able to minimise the gap to Michal Smidl in the Racer League from 25 to 15 points in the Spa Challenge of the Racer League. The Spaniard came out on top in the eighth of ten championship races ahead of Swiss sim racing talent Siro Zambra. Smidl worked his way up to third place after an accident in the Eau Rouge.

"Theoretically, anything is still possible, but I don't have any great expectations," said Sanchez when asked about the title fight. This is also because the ninth round of the season will be held at Laguna Seca, a circuit that has found its place on the Racing Unleashed racing calendar for the first time. "It should be very difficult to overtake there."

He had no problems with this at Spa, quickly moving up from sixth place to the top. Zambra, who was suffering from an illness, was not able to slow down the high-flyer from Madrid for long. "I concentrated solely on securing second place. I wouldn't have been able to keep Sanchez behind me for 17 laps," he revealed after the race. "Overall, I managed my Push2Pass activations well."

Despite the illness, the young racer was able to hold on strongly to second place. Smidl ploughed through the field as usual, but he was also unable to attack the young Swiss rider and was not in a great mood to celebrate after the race despite his strong recovery from 15th place. "My race was affected by an incident before the Eau Rouge. Someone crashed into me. After that it was just damage limitation," explained the Czech, who lost a few points to Sanchez as a result. The best German was Angelo Michel, who crossed the finish line in sixth place and only has an outside chance of winning the title.

His compatriot Nico Fahland, on the other hand, has slightly better chances in the Challenger League, the class in which drivers use driving aids such as traction control and ABS. The Simracer from the Munich lounge finished ninth and is 22 points behind the leader Janik Pletscher.
However, Fahland will miss the knock-out qualifying in the next race due to too many penalty points and will therefore have to start from last place in the race.

Marcos Valverde, who like Sanchez drives a simulator in Madrid, has moved into second place with a strong second place in Spa. He is 18 points behind the leader from Zurich.
However, Lorenzo Heyder took the victory in Spa. The German, who was unable to compete in the previous race due to a ban, took an early lead at the front of the field and secured a commanding victory. Thanks to these 25 points, Lorenzo was able to move up to 6th place, three points ahead of his brother Joshua.

Top 3 Racer League

1st Michael Smidl - 119 points

2nd Alejandro Sanchez - 104 points

3rd Angelo Michel - 80 points

Top 3 Challenger League

1st Janik Pletscher - 119 points

2nd Marcos Valverde - 101 points

3rd Nico Fahland - 97 points

The Challenger and Racer League races at Laguna Seca will be held on 8 and 9 December.
If you also want to race through the Corkscrew in a Formula car, you can qualify for the Challenger League race with a quick lap in the simulator. You can find more information right here: