Rounds seven and eight of the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup GB championship took place on Sunday 20 March at a virtual Oulton Park circuit powered by the iRacing platform. Some of the world's best professional sim racers took to the undulating 2.69-mile International circuit during the fourth weekend of the 2022 championship. Replicating the established format, a one-hour practice session came before a 17-minute qualifying session, followed by two 25-minute races broadcast live via the Porsche Twitch channel.

Mastering Oulton Park International's 17 turns is a challenge for drivers of all abilities, but the names at the top of the timesheet in practice were familiar championship challengers - Sebastian Job, Kevin Ellis Jr and William Chadwick joined Peter Berryman and Graham Carroll in setting the pace. However, it was Job who emerged from qualifying in pole position having put together a very impressive lap to get ahead of the competition.

The weekend's first race was an exciting affair with plenty of overtaking action. Job stayed in front to take his second win of the season with Carroll second and an impressive Josh Thompson in third. In the second race of the day, Berryman made a good start to lead into the first corner and went on to claim his third win of the season. Ellis Jr and Carroll are now tied on championship points at the season midpoint.

Qualifying
Ellis Jr maintained his practice form through to the early part of qualifying, though remarkably his time of 1:33.690 was matched exactly by Berryman – down to the thousandth of a second. Chadwick remained a key player less than half a tenth adrift in third while Carroll initially found himself languishing down the timesheet.

The second half of the session saw Job produce an exceptionally quick lap, his time of 1:33.405 putting pole position out of the reach of his rivals. With just one minute of the session remaining, Carroll moved onto the front row with a time 0.204 seconds off Job's benchmark time. Berryman would start third with Ellis Jr joining him on the second row of the grid.

Race one
At the start of the race the order remained mainly static into the first corner, Job leading Carroll with Ellis Jr and Berryman giving chase. Further into the opening lap there was drama towards the back of the pack as Lewis Ward made contact with Craig A Williams and Dane Baird at Britten's, Ward colliding with a tyre stack which ended his race on the spot. As Job pulled out a slight advantage at the front, Ellis Jr began pushing hard to catch Carroll ahead.

With 20 minutes of racing remaining, Will Tregurtha took to the grass at Knickerbrook which gave Jack Sedgwick a run at him up the hill towards Druids – Sedgwick snatched seventh as a result. Soon afterwards Sedgwick made his own error which dropped him down to eleventh and allowed Tregurtha back into seventh, this time Jamie Moone putting Sedgwick under pressure with Matt Emery directly behind. Emery soon mounted a successful pass for eighth at Hislop's but Moone quickly came back at him – he would have to wait until Island to get ahead.

With 14 minutes of racing remaining the battle at the front ignited. In an attempt to break the stalemate, Ellis Jr attacked Carroll at Hislop's but the pass did not materialize. In the shuffle Berryman was slightly compromised which allowed an on-form Thompson to pass him for fourth and relegating Berryman to fifth. That soon became sixth as Berryman slowed allowing Chadwick to overtake.

In the closing stages of the race an ongoing dice between Emery and Sedgwick came to a head when Emery's car became unsettled in the run down to Cascades, he made contact with Sedgwick who left the circuit as a result. Both drivers would continue with Emery in tenth, Sedgwick 15th. Further drama came in the final three minutes of racing when Ellis Jr made an uncharacteristic error at the exit of Island Bend causing him to leave the track, rejoining down in ninth.

At the flag Job took his second win of the season with Carroll second and Thompson third. As a result of the late drama with Ellis Jr, Berryman crossed the line in fifth and Moone finished sixth to benefit from reverse grid pole position in the day's second race. Championship leader Ellis Jr crossed the line in eighth.

Race two
The grid for the second race was determined by reversing the top six finishing positions from race one. Moone was joined on the front row by Berryman with Chadwick and Thompson forming row two, Carroll and Job row three. When the lights went out Moone was passed by Chadwick who made an electric start, darting around his rivals to run with Berryman and Thompson in the first charge down to Cascades – the order Berryman from Chadwick and Thompson.

Another good start came from Ellis Jr. Keen to make up ground following his error in race one, he moved up from eighth to sixth on the opening lap to chase Job ahead, in turn Job was focused on Carroll in fourth. Resuming their earlier battle, Sedgwick chased Emery for 11th with Williams keeping a watching brief behind. However, Sedgwick would bring the competition to a close when he left the circuit before rejoining in 14th.

Berryman looked comfortable in the lead, beginning to pull a gap which grew from one second to 2.7 seconds in the space of just a few laps. Meanwhile, Chadwick put as much pressure on Thompson in second as he could muster. Carroll and Job kept watch behind but both looked keen to play things safe rather than risk an overtaking move which might result in a collision. At this stage of the season every point counts.

With five minutes of racing remaining a six-car train formed running nose-to-tail from Thompson in second to Chadwick, Carroll, Job, Ellis Jr and Moone in seventh. Chadwick tried everything in the book to mount a challenge on Thompson but to no avail. Berryman crossed the line to take his third win of the season, joined on the podium by Thompson and Chadwick with championship rivals Carroll (fourth), Job (fifth) and Ellis Jr (sixth) just behind.

With the first half of the season now complete the second half gets underway on 27 March when the championship makes its first visit to Knockhill for rounds nine and 10 – the popular Scottish circuit was a new addition to the iRacing platform last year. Keep up to date with Porsche Esports Carrera Cup GB news via the Porsche Motorsport GB Twitter feed: twitter.com/PorscheRacesGB

Championship positions:

1st - Kevin Ellis Jr - 145
2nd - Graham Carroll - 145
3rd - Sebastian Job - 139