It was the second time in a week that the twelve Global Series finalists were on site competing for the current MotoGP™ teams. During the weekend they not only fought it out in the two races, but spent time with their teams’ MotoGP™ riders, technicians and managers.
Interest in the series was growing by the week, which was reflected in the stars that were present during the hour-long televised event. MotoGP™ riders Takaaki Nakagami and Hafizh Syahrin were avid watchers of events, with the Japanese rider happy to divulge some tips to the finalists before race one. Meanwhile Syahrin tried his hand at commentary for the second race.
The finalists attacked the Motorland Aragon Circuit for race one and the Sepang International Circuit for the second heat, two tracks known for their technical difficulty and interesting racing.
The first of the evening’s two races was a vintage cat-and-mouse affair. Fighting back from an average start, Ducati Team’s AndrewZh grabbed the lead midway around the first lap. But reigning eSport champion and Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s entry trastevere73 soon found his way to second. From there, he began chipping away, tenth by tenth, at his fellow Italian’s lead. Despite trastevere73’s best efforts, the Ducati rider came home 0.8s in front to claim his second win in what would eventually be a victorious MotoGP™ eSport campaign.
Roles were reversed in a thrilling race two. Held over 10 laps, trastevere73 got the holeshot and led from the front while AndrewZh and the impressive Wimp gave chase close behind. The leading two soon broke clear, however and produced a grandstand finale, with the Ducati Team rider passing his rival before the final turn on the last lap. Not to be outdone, trastevere73 showed all his class to let the brakes off, and outmanoeuvre his rival to win his first race in this year’s Global Series and put himself back in the championship hunt.
The result opened up the Global Series into a three-horse race with AndrewZh, trastevere73 and round one star Cristianmm17 separated by just six points after the second round. It was a fight that would go right the way to the final corner of the final race.
The drama this year is sure to be the same level. The second round of the 2020 MotoGP™ eSport Global Series gets underway on 2nd October, where eleven finalists will fight for one of the most prestigious titles in the gaming world.
