F1 ace Verstappen to make Supercars Eseries wildcard appearance
Red Bull Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen will make a wildcard appearance in the second round of the Supercars All Star Eseries
Avid sim racer Verstappen's most recent virtual success came when he beat over 40 professional racing drivers to the inaugural Team Redline's Real Racers Never Quit crown last week.
The only event of that six-round championship in which Verstappen failed to earn at least one podium finish was the Supercars round at Watkins Glen.
Now Verstappen will return to Supercars machinery in a Red Bull-branded Holden Commodore at Silverstone and Catalunya - the scene of his maiden F1 win in 2016 - in the officially endorsed virtual series.
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"I'm looking forward to the race," he said. "It's going to be a challenge as it's not a car I've driven a lot on the sim, but they are pretty cool to watch in real life.
"We always race with Supercars in Melbourne so it's going to be interesting to see how I get on against all the regular drivers.
"I've tried the Supercar now a few times on iRacing and it's a very tricky car to get right. I'm looking forward to racing alongside my mate Shane [van Gisbergen, 2016 Supercars champion] or Pastor, as I call him - he's a top shunter on the sim.
"We race online a lot together so hopefully we can do well for Red Bull and it should be a bit of fun racing against the other V8 drivers as well."
Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin leads the Eseries points standings by 44 points after winning two of the three opening races.
His real-life title adversary van Gisbergen had a much tougher opening round, ending up upside down at the final race at Monza.
The Red Bull Holden driver is looking forward to racing against Verstappen again after competing together in Redline's iRacing series.
"It's awesome that a driver of Max's calibre will be on the grid to take us on in a Red Bull Supercar," van Gisbergen said.
"He's fast and he knows these tracks well, so I expect to see him at the front.
"He's put in plenty of hours in a Supercar online. Just like he races in an F1, he's aggressive and won't back down against anyone, so it will be great to have him on the grid this week."
The Eseries has adopted a three-qualifying session, four-race format for its second round, with the qualifying sessions determining the grids for the first race at Silverstone, as well as Races 3 and 4 at Barcelona.
The second Silverstone race will be started in reverse grid order.
The first and third races will be sprints lasting 15 minutes, while races two and four will be 20 minutes in length.
Each will have a compulsory pitstop.
The races will take place on Wednesday morning from 10am BST, with all the action live-streamed on Motorsport.tv.
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