Sánchez, Job score 2024 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup wins at the Red Bull Ring

The Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup championship battle enters the final stages of the 2024 season following the latest round at the Red Bull Ring. Despite a fifth victory on the season for Sebastian Job (Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing), his lead dwindled to only 25 points over 2022 series champion Diogo Pinto (Team Redline). 

Alejandro Sánchez (Stormforce Racing) took the TAG Heuer Pole Award and the Sprint race victory. Pinto finished in the runner-up position while Job, who missed out on qualifying points, managed sixth. In the Feature, Job made his way to the front for the win, but Pinto followed through to take home a double runner-up day, scoring the most points out of anyone, eight over what Job collected.

With rookie sensation Luke McKeown (Apex Racing Team) only scoring 20 points in Austria, the championship battle is basically down to two former champions. Mathematically, there are still many who can win it, but with two events to go at Imola and Monza, time is running out for the field to catch back up.

SPRINT RACE: Sánchez scored the TAG Heuer Pole Award over last year’s champion, Jordan Caruso (Altus Esports), with Pinto rounding out the top three. Job, a three-time TAG Heuer Pole Award winner this season, was mired back in 11th, his chances at a Sprint race victory slim. For the 10 lap battle, Sánchez maintained control over Caruso and Pinto while Job worked methodically up the running order. With a few laps to go, Caruso took a look, but Sánchez held strong. This allowed Pinto to jump on the opportunity for second.

Behind the leaders, Job managed to work up into an invert position before the gloves came off for the pole invert position behind him. McKeown, Chris Lulham (Verstappen.com Racing) and Kevin Nielsen (FYRA SimSport) went three-wide into the hairpin and made contact. McKeown and Nielsen got together again later in the lap and both were forced to retire. Lulham held on for a ninth place finish, but Sam Kuitert (Team Redline) snuck by, behind Zac Campbell (VRS Coanda), to take the eighth position and inverted to the pole.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Sprint top 10 results from the Red Bull Ring were as follows:

1. Alejandro Sánchez
2. Diogo C. Pinto
3. Jordan Caruso
4. Alessandro Bico
5. Yohann Harth
6. Sebastian Job
7. Zac Campbell
8. Sam Kuitert
9. Chris Lulham
10. Cooper Webster

FEATURE RACE: Behind Kuitert and Campbell on the front row, Job inverted to start in third spot for the Feature event. Sánchez inverted to eighth, the rest of his night deteriorating as he fell back to finish 14th. Pinto, who started alongside Sánchez, went in the opposite direction—towards the front.

After two laps, Kuitert gave way to Yohann Harth (Apex Racing Team) who led the lion’s share of the 20 lap Feature. Campbell moved into second while Job continued in third. With eight laps to go, Campbell made the move to the lead. Job followed through into second, and two laps later, he was on top. Campbell managed to let Harth back through, as well as Pinto, but up front, Job managed the gap appropriately.

On the final lap, Pinto made his move to take second away from Harth, succeeding to score the most points on the day. Job, meanwhile, went on to collect his third Feature win and fifth overall win of the 2024 season.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup  were as follows:

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup points through Round 5 are as follows:

1. Sebastian Job, 343
2. Diogo C. Pinto, 318
3. Luke McKeown, 251
4. Yohann Harth, 232
5. Alejandro Sánchez, 221
6. Jordan Caruso, 214
7. Zac Campbell, 208
8. Cooper Webster, 199
9. Alessandro Bico, 185
10. Gustavo Ariel, 182

Job’s lead shrinks to 25, the lowest it’s been since the first round of the season at Daytona. At one point, that lead was nearly an entire race’s worth. Pinto is yet to find victory lane, but his consistency is reminiscent of when he took the 2022 title on a single Sprint win all season. McKeown rebounded to finish 11th in the Feature, picking up 20 points as a result to maintain third in the championship. He’s 92 points behind, however, with only two races left in the 2024 season.

ALL-STARS: For the first time in the 2024 season, recent real-world Bathurst 12HR winner and former PESC competitor Ayhancan Guven was in attendance for the All-Stars festivities. While this season has been about the dominance of eNASCAR star Casey Kirwan once again, Guven showed him and the rest of the field up with the final 992 Cup race on the calendar.

Guven won the pole and set sail for the Sprint. Kirwan managed to take second away from Suellio Almeida and The Pulpo Lopez, but those three could not keep up with Guven’s pace. With a full field invert for the Feature, Guven needed to come from last to sweep the day. By the end of the first lap, he was more than halfway there.

Guven moved into the top spot around Quirkitized before half the laps were complete. Again, he drove away as the rest of the field battled for the remaining spots. Lopez and Quirk were far enough away from Kirwan and the rest of the field on the final laps to decide the runner-up spot amongst themselves. Quirk gave it everything he had, but Lopez managed to take it, maintaining the points gap behind Kirwan with only two events remaining in the 2024 season.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports All-Stars Sprint results from the Red Bull Ring were as follows:

1. Ayhancan Guven
2. Casey Kirwan
3. Suellio Almeida
4. The Pulpo Lopez
5. Keny500

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports All-Stars Feature results from the Red Bull Ring were as follows:

1. Ayhancan Guven
2. The Pulpo Lopez
3. Quirkitized
4. Casey Kirwan
5. Stradi

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports All-Stars points through Round 5 are as follows:

1. Casey Kirwan, 176
2. The Pulpo Lopez, 142
3. Quirkitized, 112
4. Keny500, 106
5. Daniel Gray, 88

The Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup series takes another week off before returning for the sixth race of the 2024 season at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, also known as Imola, on March 30th. Coverage begins that Saturday at 18:00 GMT (2PM ET) with the Porsche All-Stars kicking off the show in their third and final vehicle of the season, the Porsche 911 GT3 R. After the All-Stars, the Supercup begins at 19:00 GMT (3PM ET).

For more information on the 2024 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup season, visit www.iracing.com/pesc. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

You may also like...

Recommended

iRacing Downshift #57: Making Social Media Waves with Doug Hunt

Recommended

iRacing 101: The NASCAR iRacing Series and Other Year-Long Series

Recommended

Steven Wilson scores ‘wild’ eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win over Minter and Honeycutt at Dover

Recommended

Could the Top 20 cut line affect the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series playoff picture again in 2024?