Tobias Dauenhauer claims victory in the second race of the 2021 EuroNASCAR Esports Series season, held at iRacing’s Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, after beating Guillaume Deflandre in a race-long battle that saw both drivers made contact early in the race that left them with a damaged car for the rest of the race.
Hendriks Motorsport driver Tobias Dauenhauer sends a strong message in last Thursday’s EuroNASCAR Esports Series race after he beat championship leader and Daytona winner Guillaume Deflandre in a thrilling battle that saw both drivers making contact early in the race.
Just like the previous round at Daytona Road Course, the shortened format of two Heat Races and one Main Event race had to be used as the round at Brands Hatch only saw 33 drivers taking part.
Dauenhauer shows his dominant pace early after he scored Pole Position in the 10 minute Qualifying shootout and led his Heat Race from start to finish despite a close challenge from DF1’s Simon Pilate. RDV’s Ulysse Delsaux finished third while Paul Jouffreau and Leonardo Colavita – in his first Esports Series race of the season – completes the Top 5 in the first Heat Race.
Despite losing out to Dauenhauer in Qualifying, Deflandre also showcased his superior pace early after he thoroughly dominated the field in his Heat Race. Deflandre won the 10-minute shootout with a gap of almost 13 seconds to Justin Kunz, while CAAL Racing engineer Stefano Guastaveglie held on to third after a close battle between him, Alain Mosqueron, and Santtu Vuoksenturja.
The Main Race, rather predictably, starts with chaos as Delsaux and Justin Kunz tangled together on the entry of Druids while Vuoksenturja spun in front of the pack at the Cooper straight, sending the field all over the circuit as they tried to avoid impact with Vuoksenturja’s No. 46 Gulf Chevrolet.
In the meantime, Dauenhauer and Deflandre cleared away from the pack as quickly opened a six seconds gap to Vladimiros Tziortzis by the start of the lap 7. However, things changed dramatically on the very next lap as the two leaders collided at the exit of Paddock Hill.
Dauenhauer, managing a one-second lead at the time, made contact with DF1 Racing’s Maximilian Heilek when he tried to lap Heilek at Paddock Hill. As Dauenhauer tries to recover his No. 150 MOMO Mustang, Deflandre collides with the left-rear side of Dauenhauer’s car, sending both cars into the tire barrier and damaging the front end of their cars.
The incident allowed Tziortzis to grab the lead while Dauenhauer and Deflandre dropped to second and fourth respectively, with Guastaveglie slotting himself in third place.
Despite the damage that they carried, both Dauenhauer and Deflandre continued to be the cars to beat in the race as Deflandre got past Guastaveglie on lap 12 before both drivers regained the lead from Tziortzis when the Cypriot driver ran wide at Clearways on lap 19.
Both drivers continued to race wheel-to-wheel for the rest of the race and in the end it was Dauenhauer that got the upper hand after he went past Deflandre on lap 33 to grab his first Esports Series win of the season.
Deflandre finished second ahead of Guastaveglie, who brought the No. 354 car home in third as the best finishing team member. Colavita finished fourth ahead of Giorgio Maggi, who grabbed the 4 bonus points for most positions gained, while Tziortzis experienced a late-race issue that dropped him down to 6th at the checkered flag.
Despite going off to the gravel at the start of the race, Frederic Gabillon finished 7th while Delsaux finished 8th despite making further contact with Naveh Talor midway through the race. DF1 Racing’s duo of Simon Pilate and Henri Tuomaala completes the Top 10, both drivers also having multiple off-track excursions throughout the race.
MAIN RACE RESULTS
| POS | GRID | DRIVER | LAPS | TIME / GAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1 | Tobias Dauenhauer (150) | 38 | Winner |
| 2. | 2 | Guillaume Deflandre (64) | 38 | + 3.872 |
| 3. | 6 | Stefano Guastaveglie (354) | 38 | + 8.411 |
| 4. | 9 | Leonardo Colavita (208) | 38 | + 12.684 |
| 5. | 23 | Giorgio Maggi (18) | 38 | + 14.014 |
| 6. | 11 | Vladimiros Tziortzis (101) | 38 | + 19.381 |
| 7. | 14 | Frederic Gabillon (3) | 38 | + 22.009 |
| 8. | 5 | Ulysse Delsaux (10) | 38 | + 38.847 |
| 9. | 3 | Simon Pilate (166) | 38 | + 25.108 |
| 10. | 17 | Henri Tuomaala (23) | 38 | + 32.003 |
| 11. | 25 | Alberto Panebianco (189) | 38 | + 32.141 |
| 12. | 7 | Paul Jouffreau (264) | 38 | + 36.185 |
| 13. | 8 | Alain Mosqueron (199) | 38 | + 37.794 |
| 14. | 16 | Chris Liemann (348) | 38 | + 38.608 |
| 15. | 12 | Patrick Hendriks (307) | 38 | + 41.118 |
| 16. | 15 | Jakub Krafek (483) | 37 | + 1 Lap |
| 17. | 19 | Roy Hendriks (318) | 37 | + 1 Lap |
| 18. | 13 | Gordon Barnes (246) | 37 | + 1 Lap |
| 19. | 26 | Michael Niemas (479) | 37 | + 1 Lap |
| 20. | 18 | Alessandro Brigatti (108) | 37 | + 1 Lap |
| 21. | 4 | Justin Kunz (99) | 37 | + 1 Lap |
| 22. | 24 | Francesco Garisto (148) | 36 | + 2 Laps |
| 23. | 10 | Santtu Vuoksenturja (46) | 36 | + 2 Laps |
| 24. | 27 | Evgeny Sokolovsky (48) | 36 | + 2 Laps |
| 25. | 28 | Leevi Lintukanto (91) | 36 | + 2 Laps |
| 26. | 29 | André Wiegold (458) | 36 | + 2 Laps |
| 27. | 21 | Naveh Talor (191) | 34 | + 4 Laps |
| 28. | 31 | Maximilian Hellek (322) | 27 | + 11 Laps |
| 29. | 20 | Davide Dallara (89) | 14 | + 24 Laps |
| 30. | 22 | Max Lanza (88) | 10 | DNF (Disconnected) |
| 31. | 32 | Rien Jannsen (346) | 2 | DNF (Disconnected) |
| 32. | 30 | Igor Romanov (190) | 2 | DNF (Disconnected) |
| 33. | 33 | Michel Stoelman (369) | 0 | DNF (Disconnected) |
The results of the race at Brands Hatch meant that Dauenhauer now moves up to second place in the standings with 73 points, just 2 points behind Deflandre who maintains his lead. Delsaux stays in third with 63 points, while Tziortzis and Pilate are currently tied with 59 points in fourth place with the Cypriot driver ahead by virtue of the 11 laps he led in the race at Brands Hatch.
Gabillon sits in sixth with 56 points while Henri Tuomaala’s second Top 10 finish in a row lands him a 7th place spot in the standings. Guastaveglie moves up to 8th place as the highest-placing team member ahead of Patrick Hendriks and Alessandro Brigatti, who completes the Top 10.
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.