Play from home: Sport becomes e-sport
LONDON: Renault’s Chinese test driver Guanyu Zhou won a virtual Bahrain GP on Sunday as Formula 1 sought to entertain fans with Esports action in a season stalled by Covid-19. The first eight rounds of the real championship have been cancelled or postponed, including Azerbaijan, which was delayed on Monday.
Bahrain would have been the second race of the year on Sunday and Liberty Media-owned Formula One had hoped to enlist current drivers in a virtual replacement using the Codemasters F1 2019 game. In the end, Mclaren’s Lando Norris and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, who is yet to make his F1 debut, were the only ones present. Others stepped up, however, with former Mclaren F1 and now Merc Formula E racer Stoffel Vandoorne finishing second with Austrian Philipp Eng, who started on pole position, third. English golfer Ian Poulter, competing from the garage of his home in Florida, and Britain’s six-time Olympic cycling gold medallist Chris Hoy also took part. So too did Nicolas, brother of Britain’s six times world champion Lewis Hamilton and singersongwriter Liam Payne. Norris had earlier raced in a separate ‘Not the BAH GP’ event organised by Veloce Esports and also featuring Poulter and Real Madrid
keeper Thibaut Courtois.
LIGA ON PLAYSTATION
Real Madrid forward Marco Asensio has missed the entire season with a knee injury but the time away from the pitch paid unexpected dividends when he was crowned champion of La Liga’s FIFA 20 video game tournament on Sunday. With Spanish football on indefinite hold, the esports commentator Ibai Llanos-organised and endorsed by La Liga event took centrestage. Over 170,000 people watched Asensio, playing as Real, beat Aitor Ruibal of Leganes 4-1 in the final, the culmination of a weekend of action involving 18 La Liga sides. Barcelona and Real Mallorca were not allowed to take part as their clubs are sponsored by Konami, the creators of FIFA 20’s competitor Pro Evolution Soccer.