Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Gasly, Vergne and Vandoorne to race in Virtual Le Mans with Veloce

Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly and Formula E's Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne will be among the drivers competing in the Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours race for Veloce Esports

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 13-14 June date of the endurance classic.

The real-life race has been postponed to 19-20 September 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 sim racer 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 one-time Formula 2 driver Ryan Tveter and 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 will also be 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 13 June at 14:00 BST.

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Esports News: FE, IndyCar stars join JOTA-run Virtual Le Mans team
Next article Montoya and Pagenaud lead Penske's Virtual Le Mans entry

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe