Lucas Blakely selected for SportPesa Racing Point at F1 Esports Pro-Draft

Last night the 2019 instalment of the F1 Esports 2019 Pro-Draft took place, and among the 10 lucky picks who will join the existing F1 Esports teams, was Lucas Blakeley who will join our F1 partners at SportPesa Racing Point.

This will be the third year of the professional F1 Esports series, and the 9 teams will be joined by Ferrari for the first time. Also new for 2019 is an increased prize fund of $500,000.

The Pro-Draft event was televised in several countries and was streamed live on YouTube and Facebook. From the 109,000 entrants, 35 finalists made it through to the final heats where only the top 8 from each of the three rounds made it through to the pro-draft. All of these were based at Silverstone for continuity and featured challenging weather conditions and a mandatory pit stop.

In the first heat, Nicolas Longuet led for the whole race, whilst Thibaut Suner and Isaac Price fought over 2nd place, but both were passed by Gianfranco Giglioli on the last lap.

In the second heat, Daniel Shields started from pole and led until Lap 8, when he was taken by Lucas Blakely. By this time the rain was coming down requiring the drivers to pit for intermediate tyres, and Blakely retained the lead, sliding sideways across the line to take the win, followed by Daniel Shields and Istvan Puki.

In the third race, race leader Simon Weigang was challenged by Floris Weijers until rain required a tyre change on Lap 3. Weigang was held up and slipped to 9th, but quickly fought his way back into the top 8. Up front, David Tonizza passed Shanaka Clay on the last lap to take 2nd place behind Weijers.

The 24 drivers selected through the heats were then joined by 6 existing F1 Esports drivers released from their contracts, who were also up for selection. Starting from Ferrari, the rest of the teams selected in reverse order of 2018 finishing position. The final line up is subject to contracts, but the selected drivers are as follows:

Ferrari – David Tonizza

Renault – simon Weigang

Haas – Floris Weijers

Williams – Isaac Price

Red Bull – Nicolas Longuet

Racing Point – Lucas Blakeley

McLaren – Allert van der Wal

Alfa Romeo – Kimmy Larsson

Toro Rosso – Manuel Biancolilla

Mercedes – Daniel Shields

So Lucas Blakeley will join existing driver Marcel Kiefer and F1 Esports rookie Daniele Haddid at Racing Point for the 2019 season. We’re very much looking forward to September the 11th when the 1st F1 Esports race will take place, and wish Marcel, Daniele and Lucas all the best of luck.

Photo c/o F1 Esports