Beitske Visser in heaven! The Dutch to become the First W Series Esport League Champion

The Dutch driver - runner-up in W Series’ maiden on-track season in 2019 - wrapped up the title with one Round to spare by winning two of the three races at the infamous German circuit. The 25-year-old also came from last to third in the reverse-grid race and set the fastest lap in two races for a total of 59 points. Her closest W Series Esports League challenger, Marta Garcia, scored 11 fewer having finished the three races in second, fifth and second positions respectively, meaning Beitske leads the Spaniard by 68 points with a maximum of 63 available in the final round at Silverstone next Thursday.

The battle for third place in the W Series Esports League intensified as Nerea Marti outscored Irina Sidorkova by nine points to reduce the Russian’s lead over her to 27. Caitlin Wood is just two points behind fifth-placed Tasmin Pepper after the Australian’s podium finish in the final race.  

Gabriela Jilkova became the seventh different W Series Esports League race-winner by coming from 13th on the grid to claim victory in the reverse-grid race. The 25-year-old Czech and Hannah Grisham returned to the grid for Round Nine following successful debuts a fortnight ago at Suzuka. They were joined by a third guest driver in Germany, where Britain’s Charlie Martin, 38, finished the three races in 11th, eighth and 12th positions respectively. As guest drivers, the trio were not eligible to score W Series Esports League points.

Beitske Visser: "It feels really good to win the W Series Esports League. From the start of the League season I’ve been very strong so I’m happy that I could win it with one round to spare. I didn’t realise until someone told me afterwards that I’d not only won the League but also 11 races out of the 27 we’ve had so far! Racing drivers want to win everything so it means a lot to me.

"In the first race I had a really good qualifying and luckily, after the first few corners of the race, I could make the gap big enough so that Marta [Garcia] wasn’t in my slipstream and I could just drive it home. In the third race I wasn’t on pole position so it was more difficult, but I got in the slipstream of Marta and got around her. Then she made a small mistake behind and that gave me a big enough gap to win.

"It was very different driving the Nürburgring Nordschleife in a Formula car as I have only driven there in GT cars in real life, so it was a new experience but an enjoyable one. The pressure was on today as I’m not sure if I will be able to race in the final round at Silverstone, so I had to win the League now and I’m so happy that I did."

The W Series Esports League table after Round Nine is as follows:

P  Driver	      Points
1  Beitske Visser     439
2  Marta Garcia       371
3  Irina Sidorkova    308
4  Nerea Marti        281
5  Tasmin Pepper      270
6  Caitlin Wood       268
7  Belen Garcia       186
8  Ayla Agren         186
9  Sarah Moore        171
10 Alice Powell       137
11 Jessica Hawkins    135
12 Naomi Schiff       129
13 Abbie Eaton        124
14 Fabienne Wohlwend  112
15 Gosia Rdest        101
16 Emma Kimilainen    99
17 Bruna Tomaselli    86
18 Sabre Cook         62
19 Miki Koyama        48
20 Vicky Piria        27
21 Jamie Chadwick     18