Max dominantly wins the Bathurst 12 Hour for Team Redline
Published on 28 February 2021 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen and his one-off team mate Enzo Bonito dominantly took the victory home of the Bathurst 12 Hour. In the sim race on the Australian Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, the Dutchman and Italian managed to lap the entire field after a twelve hours’ lasting online race. An immaculate performance combined with consistent lap times, gaining on their competitors a few tenths every lap, were the main ingredients for the win by Team Redline Orange.
During qualifying Max shows his prowess and snatches pole for Team Redline Orange (#33) with a 0,449 second lead (2:00.726). The GT-field, 55 cars strong, has a rolling start. Max manages to retain the lead when the race gets underway, which is during the final hours of the night. Quite quickly a battle emerges for mainly second to fifth place. In the beginning Williams Esports (#9) is able to slot in very well until a mistake is made and the subsequent crash leads to a retirement.
Team Redline Ice Blue (#87), with Aleksi Uusi-Jaakkola and Jeffrey Rietveld at the helm, are running the first half of the race mainly in the third spot. Halfway the 12-hour lasting race, Logitech G Altus Esports (#43), running in their BMW M4 GT3, are in second place.
Team Redline Orange, making tracks in an Audi R8 LMS, is doing stints consisting of 30 laps before they head in to the pits for refueling. After two stints, while the sun has risen by now, Max hands over the car to Bonito. They have an 18-second lead. Two stints later and about a little over four hours of driving, 120 laps are on the board. While Max’ Italian team mate hands back the wheel to him, their lead has grown to 38 seconds.
Halfway the race, when it’s time for a switch again after well over six hours, Team Redline Orange is 53 seconds ahead on Logitech G Altus Esports. A three-car crash triggers a brief moment but none of the front runners are involved. With still four hours to go, Team Redline Ice Blue overtakes Logitech A Altus Esports to take second place. This means that Team Redline is now running first and second.
After 240 laps and with well over 3,5 hours on the clock, Max straps back in. The gap to the other Team Redline-car is 80 seconds. Two stints and 60 laps later, the final swap of positions in Team Redline Orange takes place. Max, who moments before lapped the third fastest car, let’s Bonito do the honours to take the #33 car to the finish.
The Italian does this perfectly and remains, just like Max, flawless. In the closing stages of the race, Team Redline Ice Blue is casually overtaken and with this the entire field has now been lapped. A dominant performance by Max Verstappen and Enzo Bonito, resulting in a victory in the Bathurst 12 Hour simrace on the iRacing platform.
Results iRacing Bathurst 12 Hour:
01 33 Team Redline Orange 02 87 Team Redline Ice Blue 03 43 Logitech G Altus Esports 04 24 Inertia SimRacing EURORC.COM 05 93 URANO eSports 06 451 Biela Racing Team EURONICS 07 90 BS COMPETITION 08 71 BMW Team Redline 09 91 BS COMPETITION 10 116 Puresims Esports 116
