Esports news: Second WRX Invitational event announced

Produced in partnership with Motorsport Games and Codemasters, the event will be streamed live from 14:00 BST on Sunday, 3 May on WRX's YouTube channel, Facebook and on Motorsport.tv.

Paul Bellamy, Senior Vice President of Motorsports Events at IMG, the promoter of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, said: "The inaugural World RX Esports event was a stunning success.

"We can now confirm that the second round will take place as the replacement for the World RX of Portugal.

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"We hope our Esports series is bringing some respite from the impacts of COVID-19 for global fans."

The World RX Esports series, using DiRT Rally 2.0, features professional FIA WRX race drivers and guest drivers from other motorsport categories competing against YouTubers and some of the biggest names from the competitive world of Esports.

Motorsport Games provides the Esports management, including driver liaison, and produces the broadcast for the series across the various distribution channels.

The inaugural event, the Catalunya Edition, engaged a cumulative audience of 9.4 million across all platforms, including more than 270,000 live viewers across YouTube, Facebook and partner channels including Motorsport.tv and GameByte.

The Catalunya Edition was won by Swedish rally driver Mattias Adielsson, with two of the world's fastest rallycross esports drivers, Lukas Mateja of the Czech Republic and France's Killian Dall'olmo, the current DiRT Rally 2.0 rallycross world series champion, coming in second and third, respectively.

The best of the World RX drivers was Dutchman Kevin Abbring in fourth place just ahead of the 2019 world champion Timmy Hansen.

Hansen has confirmed his participation for the Montalegre Edition along with brother Kevin.

World RX regular Oliver Bennett and Aston Martin GT racer Nicki Thiim are also among the field.

All the action will be called by the World RX regular commentary pairing of Andrew Coley and Neil Cole.

The full World RX line-up, along with guest drivers and gamers, will be revealed in the coming days.

The World RX Esports series is being held on the dates of selected rounds of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy that have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.