Mobil 1 Cup powered by E-tepalai.lt last Sunday went to USA, Sebring. As usual, we had some new drivers in this championship, but one of them put on an extraordinary show: newbie Lithuanian Matas Mendelis won it all.
Until the penultimate round no. 7 of the Mobil 1 Cup powered by e-tepalai.lt had almost 130 unique racers participated, divided into 4 divisions and driving identical Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars with the fixed set-up. Every round we have some new faces, who are collecting their sim-racing experience in lower divisions and we only talk about the leaders. But Matas Mendelis is no ordinary newbie at this championship, he is an experienced sim-racer and showed it by setting the fastest time on qualifying of 1:23.569. Almost half a second faster than second place holder Tauras Tunyla.
Take a look at the fastest times of Division 1 Qualifying.
| Pos | Start | Car | Driver | Best lap | Inc | Laps | Rating | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matas Mendelis | 02:03.569 | 0 | 7 (7) | ||||
| 2 | Tauras Tunyla | 02:04.048 | 1 | 7 (5) | ||||
| 3 | Domantas Varnys | 02:04.067 | 0 | 5 (4) | ||||
| 4 | Haroldas Jotautas | 02:04.119 | 0 | 6 (5) | ||||
| 5 | Davis Bite | 02:04.258 | 0 | 7 (7) | ||||
| 6 | Simonas Urbonas | 02:04.276 | 0 | 7 (7) | ||||
| 7 | Andrejs Gubarevs | 02:04.305 | 0 | 6 (6) | ||||
| 8 | Jakub Charkot | 02:04.306 | 0 | 7 (7) | ||||
| 9 | Tauras Gudinavicius | 02:04.348 | 1 | 7 (7) | ||||
| 10 | Evaldas Dzialtuvas | 02:04.363 | 1 | 7 (7) |
Matas Mendelis kept his lead, Tauras Tunyla lost a place to Domantas Varnys and then in the back, we saw total carnage in every lap. A championship leader Tauras Gudinavičius made a mistake on T1, eventually, it became a massive mid-field crash and retired from the race, as well as 4th place holder in the standings German J. Nimz.
And after big problems second place holder Polish Jakub Charkot finished last. Oh, there was some drama… And there will be even more next Sunday on the final of Mobil 1 Cup at fearsome Nordschleife.
Back to the Sebring. M. Mendelis maintained his lead well, up to the finish line. H. Jotautas couldn’t stand the pressure from E. Zadeikis and went to the wall, and o my, what an action-packed race it was. Just watch it.
Until the last lap, the last corner, Tauras Tunyla made a better exit to start-finish straight and overtook Edvnas Zadeikis for 4th place.
The standings before the final should be messed up a bit, and it seems, that the race in Nordschleife will be epic. Let’s take a look at TOP5 drivers of all 4 divisions in round 7.
Division 1
| Pos | Start | Car | Driver | Gap | Best lap | Inc | Laps | Series Pts | Rating | Prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Matas Mendelis | 60:34.974 | 02:02.607 | 0 | 29 (29) | 35 | 1644 (+48) | |||
| 2 | 4 | Domantas Varnys | +00:01.826 | 02:03.349 | 1 | 29 (29) | 26 | 1492 (+72) | |||
| 3 | 6 | Simonas Urbonas | +00:21.746 | 02:04.343 | 1 | 29 (29) | 22 | 1498 (+63) | |||
| 4 | 1 | Tauras Tunyla | +00:23.641 | 02:03.341 | 0 | 29 (29) | 20 | 1519 (+50) | |||
| 5 | 12 | Edvinas Žadeikis | +00:23.819 | 02:04.296 | 1 | 29 (29) | 18 | 1609 (+23) |
Division 2
| Pos | Start | Car | Driver | Gap | Best lap | Inc | Laps | Series Pts | Rating | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Estefano Barrera R | 61:21.856 | 02:03.808 | 1 | 29 (29) | 15 | 1116 (+77) | ||
| 2 | 7 | Lukas Mickus | +00:08.250 | 02:04.624 | 2 | 29 (29) | 14 | 1160 (+60) | ||
| 3 | 4 | Tomas Čeida | +00:15.093 | 02:04.325 | 1 | 29 (29) | 13 | 1108 (+55) | ||
| 4 | 6 | Victor Tena | +00:20.442 | 02:05.245 | 1 | 29 (29) | 12 | 1210 (+10) | ||
| 5 | 10 | Augustas Sleiva | +00:22.042 (+00:10.000) | 02:03.708 | 1 | 29 (29) | 11 | 1203 (+44) |
Division 3
| Pos | Start | Car | Driver | Gap | Best lap | Inc | Laps | Series Pts | Rating | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Aurimas Mištautas | 61:46.217 | 02:04.462 | 3 | 29 (29) | 15 | 1097 (+31) | ||
| 2 | 4 | Martin Bodmer | +00:43.321 | 02:06.252 | 5 | 29 (29) | 14 | 1098 (+23) | ||
| 3 | 10 | Eimantas Navikauskas | +00:54.256 | 02:06.794 | 7 | 29 (29) | 13 | 1020 (+24) | ||
| 4 | 1 | Vilintas Kuras | +00:54.629 | 02:05.848 | 5 | 29 (29) | 12 | 1000 (+18) | ||
| 5 | 3 | Tomáš Lošonský | +01:01.165 | 02:05.522 | 3 | 29 (29) | 11 | 1091 (0) |
Division 4
| Pos | Start | Car | Driver | Gap | Best lap | Inc | Laps | Series Pts | Rating | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Szymon Janik | 60:09.837 | 02:05.508 | 0 | 28 (28) | 15 | 963 (+17) | ||
| 2 | 3 | Arminas Tomasevicius | +01:07.270 | 02:07.314 | 0 | 28 (28) | 14 | 895 (+13) | ||
| 3 | 4 | Sacha Galguera | +01:43.088 | 02:08.647 | 6 | 28 (28) | 13 | 942 (+2) | ||
| 4 | 6 | Ivan Moyano | -1L | 02:07.184 | 6 | 27 (27) | 12 | 968 (-7) | ||
| 5 | 1 | Ignacio Lanero | -1L | 02:07.319 | 8 | 27 (27) | 11 | 932 (-13) |