Cristianmm17 -LCR Honda CASTROL eSports Team- bagged pole positions for both races in two dramatic qualifying sessions. But it was close. On both occasions he just placed ahead of a rival who also happens to be his brother. Repsol Honda Team’s adriaan_26 was second in both sessions. In the second, the pair incredibly posted the exact same time!
All the while current championship leader and reigning champion trast73 (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) qualified down the order, placing sixth for the first encounter and eighth for the second. Could we see the title lead change hand on Friday August 26th 16.00 (GMT +2), when the third round of the 2022 Global Series takes place?
After two thrilling rounds so far, round three is a Virtual Round. In another change for this year, there will be a different points-scoring system for these Virtual Rounds. The winner of a race will score 12.5 points, the runner up 10, with third place scoring 8 and so on.
The twelve gamers, hailing from Australia, the UK, Indonesia, Italy and Spain, made it through the Pro Draft and Draft Selection phases and have been chosen by the MotoGP™ teams to represent them in the prestigious five-round series.
Round three really puts the skillset of each finalist to the test. The two tracks disputed are classics on the current MotoGP™ calendar: Race 1 takes place at the Circuit of Jerez – Angel Nieto, the home of the Spanish Grand Prix while Race 2 will be held at the Red Bull Ring, located high in the spectacular Austrian Alps.
Qualifying for race one was full of incident as just 0.2s covered the fastest six gamers. Cristianmm17 eventually took pole position by the narrowest of margins (0.066s!) from adriaan_26. Ecstar Suzuki’s AndreaSaveri11 was third.
There was nothing to split Cristianmm17 and adriaan_26 in the second session, with the former getting the nod for pole position, as his second faster time bettered that of his brother. PieroRicciuti55 was third for Ducati Lenovo eSport Team.
Jack Appleyard and Jack Gorst will present the show tomorrow (Friday August 26th) at 16:00 (GMT +2) as well as being on commentary duties during an hour-long show, beginning with highlights of qualifying before the twelve finalists take on the two races.
Friday’s action will be available on selected TV broadcasters, motogp.com, esport.motogp.com, and across a wide range of social media platforms including YouTube (via the MotoGP™ and MotoGP™ eSport channels), Twitter, Instagram, Facebook (via MotoGP™ and MotoGP™ eSport pages) and Twitch via MotoGP™ and MotoGP™ eSport.