Anything can still happen with two rounds remaining in the 2020 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup, but it’s safe to say that it’ll probably take a miracle for anyone to challenge Red Bull Racing Esports’ Sebastian Job from here.
Once again, a Saturday round ended with Job on top of the podium, this time at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. With continued issues for top championship rivals Joshua Rogers and Alejandro Sanchez, Job’s championship lead now exceeds 80 points, with only visits to Le Mans and Monza remaining in the season.
“I’m absolutely shocked by that, to be honest,” admitted Job. “I wasn’t at all confident going into today, but it’s the Nordschleife, and anything can happen. Anything good that could’ve happened to me did, and I just picked my way through kind of slowly and surely, making sure not to go for any stupid moves that could wipe me out. I was very careful and patient, and it paid off in the end.”
Job’s teammate Patrik Holzmann scored the sprint race victory and finished second in the feature, his best finish of the season, although both drivers almost made contact while running in podium positions during the event. The strong points day put the German driver into the top 20 of the championship standings, the cutoff for drivers who will retain their license for the 2021 championship season.
“It was a great day for the team—(we) got the most out of the package, so that was pretty nice,” said Holzmann. “I thought today was my day, coming in after the sprint win. I was giving Seb a fair fight, but at the end of the day, he was just faster than me. I’m more than happy with P2 after such a terrible season for me. I really needed this one.”
Mack Bakkum completed the podium for VRS Coanda Simsport, ahead of Apex Racing Team drivers Kevin Ellis Jr. and Yohann Harth. As for Rogers and Sanchez, each driver fell victim to contact, as the challenges of the Nordschleife proved too much for many of the series’ top drivers. For the second round in a row, Rogers’ contact came with Maximilian Benecke, as the German’s sliding car happened to find the Australian out of multiple potential victims; however, as the incident came in the sprint race, Rogers was able to climb to ninth for the feature. Sanchez wasn’t so lucky, failing to finish the main event and leaving the weekend with just 18 points.
Full results from the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup feature at the Nurburgring Nordschleife were as follows:
Fin. | St. | No. | Driver | Laps | Interval | Led | Best | Pts. |
| 1 | 4 | 22 | Sebastian Job | 4 | 3 | 8:18.623 | 76 | |
| 2 | 1 | 27 | Patrik Holzmann | 4 | -1.249 | 0 | 8:19.422 | 70 |
| 3 | 6 | 16 | Mack Bakkum | 4 | -1.810 | 0 | 8:20.438 | 61 |
| 4 | 2 | 98 | Kevin Ellis Jr | 4 | -2.054 | 1 | 8:19.969 | 59 |
| 5 | 8 | 90 | Yohann Harth | 4 | -4.182 | 0 | 8:20.189 | 47 |
| 6 | 3 | 24 | Mitchell deJong | 4 | -6.337 | 0 | 51 | |
| 7 | 10 | 5 | Martin Krönke | 4 | -6.635 | 0 | 8:19.947 | 39 |
| 8 | 7 | 107 | Tuomas Tähtelä | 4 | -6.756 | 0 | 40 | |
| 9 | 18 | 92 | Joshua K Rogers | 4 | -7.397 | 0 | 8:20.053 | 37 |
| 10 | 9 | 28 | Alexander Thiebe | 4 | -9.506 | 0 | 8:21.632 | 34 |
| 11 | 15 | 49 | Jamie Fluke | 4 | -10.207 | 0 | 8:19.111 | 26 |
| 12 | 11 | 36 | Joshua W Anderson | 4 | -10.295 | 0 | 8:20.339 | 28 |
| 13 | 17 | 57 | Dayne Warren | 4 | -10.844 | 0 | 20 | |
| 14 | 19 | 77 | Valtteri Alander | 4 | -12.310 | 0 | 8:20.186 | 16 |
| 15 | 14 | 110 | Christopher Dambietz | 4 | -12.509 | 0 | 8:20.064 | 19 |
| 16 | 20 | 7 | Jeff Giassi | 4 | -14.061 | 0 | 11 | |
| 17 | 28 | 211 | Thibault Cazaubon | 4 | -15.721 | 0 | 9 | |
| 18 | 24 | 21 | Graham Carroll | 4 | -17.304 | 0 | 8:21.135 | 8 |
| 19 | 26 | 11 | Maximilian Benecke | 4 | -18.558 | 0 | 8:19.713 | 11 |
| 20 | 31 | 58 | Tommy Østgaard | 4 | -19.946 | 0 | 8:22.073 | 6 |
| 21 | 23 | 2 | Jeremy Bouteloup | 4 | -24.254 | 0 | 8:22.039 | 5 |
| 22 | 32 | 10 | Jack Sedgwick | 4 | -25.981 | 0 | 8:22.412 | 4 |
| 23 | 25 | 23 | Aleksi Uusi-Jaakkola | 4 | -26.387 | 0 | 8:22.550 | 3 |
| 24 | 13 | 83 | Bobby Zalenski | 4 | -35.967 | 0 | 8:21.633 | 10 |
| 25 | 21 | 43 | Brian Lockwood | 4 | -36.102 | 0 | 8:23.614 | 1 |
| 26 | 29 | 94 | Jarrad Filsell | 3 | -1 L | 0 | 8:22.801 | 0 |
| 27 | 30 | 33 | Ricardo Castro Ledo | 3 | -1 L | 0 | 0 | |
| 28 | 27 | 29 | Carl E Jansson | 2 | -2 L | 0 | 0 | |
| 29 | 5 | 47 | Alejandro Sánchez | 2 | -2 L | 0 | 18 | |
| 30 | 12 | 3 | Sindre Setsaas | 1 | -3 L | 0 | 9 | |
| 31 | 16 | 31 | David Williams | 1 | -3 L | 0 | 5 | |
| 32 | 22 | 14 | Marc Perez | 1 | -3 L | 0 | 0 |
Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup points through eight races are as follows:
- Sebastian Job, 521
- Joshua Rogers, 437
- Alejandro Sanchez, 407
- Maximilian Benecke, 351
- Kevin Ellis Jr., 315
- Dayne Warren, 266
- Tommy Ostgaard, 243
- Jeff Giassi, 239
- Mack Bakkum, 224
- Jamie Fluke, 187
Just two rounds remain in the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup season, as the series returns to Circuit de la Sarthe on September 26 and wraps up with its first visit to Monza on October 10. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
