Bico earns first Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup Feature win at the Nürburgring

The Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup has made it to the home stretch, with the final races in the 2023 season all scheduled within the next month. The third-to-last race of the season took on the famed Nürburgring Gesamtstrecke. With the championship lead by Jordan Caruso from Altus Esports out of reach coming into the event, both Stormforce Racing ART’s Alejandro Sánchez and Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Job were hoping to chip it down to a more reasonable gap leaving the Green Hell.

Both started things off as best they could, as Sánchez scored the TAG Heuer Pole Award for the third time this season, starting alongside Job on the line. The three-lap Sprint was fairly straightforward as Sánchez led the entire way, with Job following behind to a second place result. Caruso started all the way back in 13th, finishing 12th in the Sprint and only collecting a few championship points. He would miss out on the invert to the front of the field as well—that battle for eighth coming down to a fight between VRS Coanda Esports’ Charlie Collins and Zac Campbell along with Williams Esports’ Moreno Sirica and MOUZ competitor Maximilian Benecke.

Sirica would take the eighth position and the invert to the pole while Collins started alongside. Campbell slid back to finish in 10th right behind Benecke, the two missing out on a trip to the front of the grid. Sánchez and Job would start from the fourth row after claiming the top two spots in the Sprint, and off of the line, Job was able to move up the field into fourth. Collins wound up with yet another retirement after hard contact with the barrier mid-race. This allowed Williams Esports’ Alessandro Bico to move up into the second spot behind Sirica and eventually into the lead.

The Williams duo was eventually split by Stormforce Racing ART’s Yohann Harth, looking for his first career victory in the top level series. Behind the battle for the lead, disaster struck for the two fastest drivers earlier on. Sánchez was looking to make a move around URANO eSports’ Luca Kita for the fifth position and sent it in entering the first corner with one lap to go. He was able to make the pass, but he was carrying more speed than the field ahead. The Sprint winner made a late move to attempt to miss Sirica, and in the process, clipped him and Job and held up Kita, the quartet of drivers losing multiple positions as Caruso benefitted, moving up into the seventh position. Up front, Harth was going for it, giving a few taps to the back of Bico. The two raced off the final corner, side-by-side to the line, and it was Bico claiming the victory. It was Bico’s second race in a row crossing the line in front, but for the first time, he did it as a Feature winner.

The All-Stars showed out as well at the Nürburgring, opening the night with some racing in the Porsche 911 RSR. Points leader Casey Kirwan had some new competition to take on this week in the form of a former Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup driver and current Porsche factory driver, Ayhancan Güven.

In the All-Star Sprint race, Güven showed off his skill, winning the pole position and taking the victory handedly over Kirwan. Porsche Junior driver Bastian Buus was also in the field and took home the final step of the podium. Moving into the Feature, the entire field inverted once more, putting the defending All-Stars champion Tyson “Quirkitized” Meier on the pole position and Güven back in last.

Unfortunately for Güven and Buus, their chances would evaporate early after run-ins with other competitors, including the likes of Jimmy Broadbent, who was making his first start of the season as well at the Nürburgring. This gave Meier the chance to pull away and never look back, defeating Jaroslav “Jardier” Honzik by more than eight seconds and Pablo “The Pulpo” López by more than 16 seconds. Kirwan managed to claw his way back up to finish fourth, allowing for him to ultimately end the evening with a net points gain on the field, now sitting at 130 points over Meier with two races remaining.

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup feature results from the Nürburgring were as follows:

Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup points through eight rounds are as follows:

1. Jordan Caruso, 449
2. Zac Campbell, 371
3. Sebastian Job, 371
4. Alejandro Sanchez, 348
5. Charlie Collins, 307
6. Diogo Pinto, 298
7. Alessandro Bico, 271
8. Yohann Harth, 257
9. Cooper Webster, 244
10. Moreno Sirica, 201

The 2023 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup series only has two races remaining. The penultimate event will take the show to the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, the Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans. Coverage for the event will kick off on Saturday, May 20 at 18:00 GMT (2PM ET). The Porsche All-Stars have one more race in the Porsche 911 RSR to kick things off. After that, the top drivers in the Supercup take off at 19:00 GMT (3PM ET).

For more information on the 2023 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup season, visit www.iracing.com/pesc. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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