Second place for Porsche after 24 hours in virtual Le Mans. #NeverNotRacingReloaded

It was like riding on the edge of a razor blade: The Porsche Esports Team strategically pulled out all the stops to stand up to the superior BMW at Le Mans. In the end, the drivers of Porsche Esports Team #91 around the newly appointed Porsche Junior Laurin Heinrich, Mitchell deJong, Mack Bakkum and Martin Krönke rewarded themselves with second place - to everyone's disappointment behind Team Redline's BMW. The sister car #92 with Porsche driver Ayhancan Güven, Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Champion Joshua Rogers, Sage Karam and Tommy Østgaard retired from the race after a collision with an LMP2 car. The #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR completed the podium of the virtual endurance classic. Porsche Motorsport already successfully cooperated with the simracing team Coanda Simsport to win the title in 2020. For the race last weekend, those responsible activated this partnership once again.

American Mitchell deJong already laid the foundation for an exciting race on Friday evening with an almost perfect qualifying. The #91 Porsche 911 RSR started the race from second place on the grid. Joshua Rogers in the #92 scored P5 in qualifying directly behind the #88 Proton Competition Porsche of Charlie Collins. While the drivers at the first edition of the race 1.5 years ago were primarily spread worldwide, Porsche Motorsport and Coanda set new standards for the race: the newly founded Coanda Esports Hub made its debut on the big stage. The Hub offered viewers of the live stream insights behind the scenes of the race, the team and the drivers. The Coanda Esports Hub was the moderation area and the race arena. The Porsche Esports teams #91 and #92 and the two Proton Competition cars #77 and #88 trained and raced on a total of 7 simulators.

At the start of the race, Mitchell deJong made a statement by moving up one position within the first corners and leading the GTE class. Starting from 5th place, the Porsche Esports Team #92 continued to move forward. Ayhancan Güven showed all his simracing talent and worked his way up to P2. After a heated opening phase, the same mechanisms as in the real endurance classic set in different strategies, driver changes, and the first retirements mixed up the order quite often.

Nighttime is crunch time at Le Mans. The dark race phase separates the wheat from the chaff. The particular challenge here is the darkness and the faster LMP2 prototypes. This is exactly what doomed the Porsche Esports Team #92. In the Porsche corners, of all places, an LMP2 bolide torpedoed Tommy Østgaard in the 911 RSR. The Norwegian hit the barrier and could not bring the car into the pits for repairs under his own power. This collision meant the end for the defending champion. From this point on, the whole focus was on #91.

Spellbound by the racing action, the Porsche Esports Team gathered behind Mack Bakkum's rig for the final stint of the race. An aggressive change of strategy raised the team's hopes of attacking the superior BMW once again. But even a flawless performance by the Dutchman was not enough to clinch the race win and the championship. In the end, Porsche Esports Team #91 stood on the second step of the podium. Frenchman Jeremy Bouteloup crossed the finish line in 3rd place for Proton Competition #77. His teammates were Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell, Loek Hartog and Kevin Van Dooren, who put the team on course for the podium with a spectacular overtaking manoeuvre. The fourth Porsche car in the Coanda Esports Hub finished 11th. However, Dylan Pereira, Sindre Furuseth, Dayne Warren and Charlie Collins still ended the championship in third place behind Porsche Esports Team #91.