One of The Sim Grid’s most popular series’, More Female Racers by Thrustmaster, is back for a second season of action, this time with an even more competitive field, as The Sim Grid look to continue the success of a series that aims to bring more women the opportunity of getting involved in Sim Racing. This time starting out at Misano, the series inevitably provided us with some brilliant action.

The podium at Misano

The first winners of season two of More Female Racers by Thrustmaster were Mia Rose and Aenore Rose, who brought their #956 Mercedes from Jean Alesi E-Sports Academy home first to start their championship campaign exactly the way they would have hoped. 

After an impressive lap in qualifying from Mia put the duo on pole, they had the tough task of keeping the field behind them when it really mattered. They both drove an incredible race, with great pace from Mia in the first half and some outstanding defensive driving from Aenore as she kept the late charging #177 GTWR Female Racing 3 Lamborghini behind for a whopping fifteen minutes.

Despite their strong showing, the team still have more to come at Zandvoort next week, as they suffered from a setup issue that Mia explained made the car feel “completely different” between their qualifying laps and the race. She later said that she “just tried to stay out in front” as the team battled to keep their Mercedes on the road.

Filling the second spot on the podium was TheHungarians in the #977 Ferrari, who showed themselves to be incredibly fast as they snatched second place after the team ahead of them suffered from a late track limits penalty. 

Timea Bencsik put in a stellar performance in the first stint of the race, as she came from tenth on the grid and over two seconds off the pace to sitting in third place as the driver swaps came around. She said in a post-race interview that “the qualifying was a mess for me” but she certainly made amends for it, as she stormed through the field passing team after team. After the stops, her teammate, Adam Pinczes, took over the helm of their Ferrari and continued their great pace, but crucially he kept the car within the confines of the circuit as they jumped the #177 Lamborghini on track limits penalties. The duo certainly have more to come as they believe “we can fight against the first or second team” at Zandvoort.

Rounding out the podium was the GTWR Female Racing 3 Lamborghini, who were challenging the Jean Alesi E-Sports Academy Mercedes right down to the wire in the battle for victory. They drove their entire race in second position, but in the hands of Tobias Pfeffer, the Lamborghini managed to close right up to the tail of the leader. However, it was not to be for them, as they couldn’t find a way past and in the second to last corner of the final lap, they were hit with a penalty for track limits which dropped them out of second place. Nonetheless, they drove a fantastic race as they brought the race right down to the wire, but I’m sure they will be evermore fired up to again next week.

The Pro-AM performers

As The Sim Grid launched the second season of More Female Racers, it was decided that the much larger grid was to be split into two classes; GT3 Pro and GT3 Pro-AM. This effectively creates a race within a race, giving the drivers more of an incentive to battle, no matter their position. With the Pro-AM class taking up almost double the amount of space on the grid as the Pro class, there was bound to action at every corner, and that was certainly the case.

Taking victory in Pro-AM was the Map1 Racing #21 McLaren, in the hands of Aloo Gobi and Jens Kaiser. Being the only McLaren on the grid, it was expected they could struggle as the McLaren is not the most favourable at Misano, but no stereotypes could stop them.

They took an early lead in the class after qualifying on pole and ninth overall, but a slow speed spin from Aloo lost them a couple of places and crucially the class lead. However, this didn’t stop them, as they retained second in class and by the end of the second stint, Kaiser had brought them onto the back of the #95 Nissan. As the Nissan got caught up with the passing #150 Lamborghini, Kaiser took advantage of it and snatched back class lead. 

The best drive in Pro-AM, however, came from the #335 Star Girl Racing Ferrari. After qualifying third in class, they dropped back, falling all the way down to nineteenth overall and eleventh in class after getting caught up in the mayhem of a lap one at Misano. But, all was not lost as Verena Mei made her way back up to sixth in class, teeing up Gregor Schill to take over. Schill certainly made the most of his pace, fighting extremely hard to gain a further four positions overall and making his way to fourth in class; Certainly a stand-out performance.

Round one’s star performances

Arguably, the standout drive from this weeks race has to have been from TheHungarians’ Ferrari. As previously mentioned, their qualifying certainly was not optimal, however, coupled with great pace and great race-craft they managed to drag their Ferrari back through the pack, miraculously keeping it completely scratch-free. 

One race that certainly should not be ignored was from the #150 GTWR Female Racing 1 Lamborghini. Although they finished one place lower than they started, in the very capable hands of Thea Boucq (better known as Theamusante), their first stint was very solid as she piled the pressure onto Yvonne van den Berg, but under the pit stops they lost a big chunk of time, dropping them amongst the Pro-AM runners and a few positions lower than they entered the pits in. But, as Giorgio Simonini took over, he roared through the field, closing the big chunks of time they had lost and clawing back sixth place by the end of the race. 

What will Zandvoort bring?

The More Female Racers squad prepares to make their way to Zandvoort next Monday, a historic race track that is tough to overtake at but always produces great racing. With many teams coming off of a high this week and many more hoping for more next week, the action is set to continue, live on The Sim Grid’s YouTube channel, where you can watch all of the previous action ahead of Round 2 on Monday, 21st of December.

Make sure to check out More Female Racers’ title sponsor, Thrustmaster for all the best Sim Racing gear and use the discount code “TMMFR15” on the Thrustmaster eShop – but you don’t have long as the discount ends soon!