Gasly, Vandoorne and Vergne join Virtual Le Mans for Veloce
Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly and Formula E stars Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne will on the virtual Le Mans 24 Hours grid for Veloce Esports.
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
The virtual rFactor 2 race, which is run in partnership between Le Mans organiser ACO, the World Endurance Championship and Motorsport Games, will take place on the original June 13-14 date of the endurance classic.
The real-life race has been postponed to September 19-20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reigning Le Mans Esports Series champions Veloce will field a trio of four-driver LMP2 entries, each comprising of two professional drivers and two sim racers as per the regulations.
AlphaTauri F1 driver Gasly will partner ex-F1 driver and Veloce co-founder Vergne as well as former Renault F1 Esports driver Jarno Opmeer and Isaac Gillissen.
The second Veloce entry includes Mercedes Formula E driver Vandoorne and Norman Nato, who is a part of Rebellion’s LMP1 line-up which has taken two race wins in the 2019/20 WEC season.
Irish sim racer Eamonn Murphy and 14-year-old Veloce Academy driver Tomek Poradzisz completes that line-up.
The third Veloce LMP2 entry features 2019 eRace of Champions winner James Baldwin, who earned a real-life GT3 drive in Jenson Button’s GT World Challenge Europe outfit for 2020 after Baldwin won the second edition of the World’s Fastest Gamer competition.
Baldwin will partner 2019 Japanese Formula 3 champion and factory Toyota driver Sacha Fenestraz, as well as one-time Formula 2 driver Ryan Tveter and Veloce’s sim racer Tom Lartilleux.
They will race against the likes of F1 stars Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who will share a virtual LMP2 run by sim racing veteran Team Redline.
Redline will also support two of WEC outfit’s JOTA Sport’s entries, one of which will partner current Formula E championship leader Antonio Felix da Costa with IndyCar’s Felix Rosenqvist.
Among those competing in the GTE class will be former Ferrari F1 drivers Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella.
There’s also four factory-backed Porsche line-ups, the first of which features its current Formula E line-up, three-time Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer and 2016 winner Neel Jani.
The Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. The race starts on June 13 at 14:00 BST or 15:00 CET.
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