Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team continued its perfect start to the Esports season with a commanding victory in the V10-R League against Yas Heat across Monza and Mugello.
Lucas Blakeley, Daniele Haddad and Shanaka Clay would line up against the Yas Heat team of Simon Weigang, Manuel Biancolilla and Cedric Thomé in the Italian double-header.
The showdown began at Mugello for the Team and Relay format as victories were shared between both teams.
Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team prevailed in the Team race despite a nail-biting start as Lucas ran side-by-side with his rival into the first chicane.
Briefly dropping to third, the Scot fought back and quickly dispatched Thomé and Biancolilla to return to the lead in a move that would decide the race on the tricky-to-pass Mugello layout.
Shanaka and Daniele started further back in the field but completed the event in fourth and fifth to ensure Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team scored more points than Yas Heat to seal the race win.
In the Relay race, Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team prevailed again. Daniele started the race and initially slipped back from Biancolilla but recovered strongly across his lap to slash over half a second from his rival’s lead heading into the pits.
The stint proved crucial as Daniele helped ensure a race in the pits went the way of Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team as Lucas headed out with a 4.5-second lead due to a quick driver swap.
Lucas would maintain the gap against Thomé and continued onto the joker lap before handing the wheel over to Shanaka Clay to complete the race and seal the victory.
The teams then switched to Monza for a pair of thrilling races, with the team narrowly losing out on a back-to-back clean sweep.
Lucas chased down Biancolilla at the beginning of the Relay race only to spin, creating a three-second buffer for the Yas Heat driver.
Lucas put in a stunning comeback across his first lap and joker lap to slash the gap down to around a second to give Daniele a fighting chance against Thomé.
He hounded the Yas Heat driver around the Italian Grand Prix circuit to give Shanaka a fighting chance in the final lap, but he narrowly missed out on the win.
But Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team ended the round on a high with victory in the Team race to complete a 3-1 victory.
An incredible first lap featured Lucas sandwiched between the Yas Heat drivers of Biancolilla and Weigang in a three-way charge to the opening corners.
The story so far
Catch up on our V10-R League season to date, which opened with a clean sweep of victories over Romain Grosjean's R8G Esports Team
Lucas would then take up a race-long battle for the lead with Weigang, which culminated in a dramatic last lap in which his rival spun off under pressure ahead of the Parabolica.
Shanaka and Daniele had their own fight against Thomé and Biancolilla, finishing fourth and fifth respectively to cap off the win.
The victory puts Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team in the driving seat as we fight to seal a playoff place later in the campaign.
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