Team Renault driver Guanyu Zhou clinched victory in the first ever virtual Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday night (March 22nd). The 20-year-old from China, who currently competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship as well as serving as a test driver for Renault in Formula 1, finished ahead of Mercedes Formula E driver Stoffel Vandoorne in second and professional racing driver Philipp Eng in third.
Commenting on his historic victory, Zhou said “Qualifying went well and gave me a good starting position for the race and I’m really happy to get the win. It’s an amazing feeling, I enjoy playing the F1 video game a lot when I’m not racing as it gets you as close to reality as possible. It wasn’t easy but I’m happy with how everything went.”
Elsewhere on the grid, current F1 drivers Lando Norris and Nicholas Latifi finished fifth and sixth respectively, whilst Zhou’s Renault teammate Ian Poulter grabbed 14th, ahead of Sir Chris Hoy in 15th and Liam Payne in 16th.
A peak audience of 395K concurrent viewers tuned in to watch the virtual Bahrain Grand Prix across YouTube, Twitch and Facebook according to Esports Charts, with the race also broadcast live with international broadcast partners including in the UK on Sky Sports.
You can watch full highlights of the race on YouTube here.
The next Virtual Grand Prix will take place on April 5 around the Australian Grand Prix circuit in Melbourne.
Please find below a full breakdown of the top 10 positions for the virtual Bahrain GP below:
- Guanyu Zhou – Renault
- Stoffel Vandorne – Mercedes
- Philipp Eng – Red Bull
- Jimmy Broadbent – Racing Point
- Lando Norris – McLaren
- Nicholas Latifi – Williams
- Luca Salvadori – AlphaTauri
- Redeye – Haas
- Dino Beganovic – FDA Hublot Esports Team
- Esteban Gutierrez – Mercedes