Byron and Leclerc Winners of eNASCAR and Virtual F1 Races

William Byron won the iRacing contest at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, while on the other side, Charles Leclerc captured the F1 virtual Vietnamese Grand Prix.

The lack of real sports events around the world provided a chance for virtual sports to show their full potential in terms of being interesting and exciting. This Sunday brought two contests, one in eNASCAR and the other in eF1.

The winner of the Pro Invitational Series race at the Bristol Motor Speedway was William Byron. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was more than dominant today, displaying a confident performance throughout the majority of the event.

.@WilliamByron wins the @iRacing #ProInvitationalSeries race at @BMSupdates…

ON A COMPUTER! pic.twitter.com/vYbgHm6eVA

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) April 5, 2020

“It was a lot of fun,” Byron said. “We had to work through some track position and really keep ourselves up toward the top five. This one of the race tracks I always enjoy coming to in the Cup car… It’s fun to have a little bit of pressure on a race in iRacing.”

Behind him, in the second place, was John Hunter Nemechek. The 2012 Allison Legacy Series champion started from the same spot, and held Timmy Hill behind him at the lowest position on the podium. Hill was the winner of the last week’s race at the Texas Motor Speedway.

The victor of the first race, at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Denny Hamlin was fourth, and Matt DiBenedetto ended fifth.

There was a lot of excitement in this one. Daniel Suarez was removed from the race by the iRacing officials following his deliberate crash with Kyle Larson. This is the second straight disqualification for Suarez. Larson too, had to end the event earlier.

Bubba Wallace decided to quit in the middle of the race after he had an incident with Clint Bowyer, and was pretty angry because of the entire situation. Jimmie Johnson fired his spotter shortly after the race started, because of the misleading information which saw him crashing. All in all, it was pretty interesting to watch this contest.

Meanwhile, eF1 had a race of its own. Ferrari’s rising star Charles Leclerc won the Vietnamese Grand Prix, which took place at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit.

“It was unbelievably hard. I’m sitting in a chair at home but I’m sweating like crazy!” said Leclerc. “We always knew the driver who made the least mistakes would win as we’re all very close on pace.”

The moment that @Charles_Leclerc won the #VirtualGP 💪

👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/IqVG0DSmsZ

— EA SPORTS™ F1® (@EASPORTSF1) April 5, 2020

Christian Lundgaard, the 19-year old F3 driver who is currently contracted to the Renault Sport Academy was second, and Williams’ Geroge Russell third.

There were other F1 faces involved. Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi was fifth, Alex Albon eight, while Nicolas Latifi, who is also under contract with Williams, ended tenth. The former F1 champion, Jenson Button was behind Latifi, with the two having an exciting showdown which amused the spectators.

The current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the start of the season, the one which was projected to be one of the most interesting in the last several years. After a period of Mercedes’ undisputed domination, Ferrari apparently has what it takes to dethrone the Silver Arrows. The Prancing Horse has both Leclerc and Vettel, who are eager to attack the title and Lewis Hamilton, which promises a lot of fun.

However, until then, we will be focused on the virtual F1.