The new champion of the PorscheSport Carrera Cup is Alexander Thiebe. At the last race of the season on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the Belgium sim driver from the Team Redline Esport team, took the championship trophy in the first ever season of the PorscheSport Carrera Cup. Thiebe had to fight off pressure from his championship rival, Maxim Ramsteijn, who had challenged Thiebe all season. However, there were still celebrations for Ramsteijn, as HM Engineering claimed the team championship victory, with a thoroughly dominating season. The virtual one-make cup, is run on the iRacing simulation platform with the digital version of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Heading into the season finale, Ramsteijn still had a chance to wrestle the crown from Thiebe. In the qualifying, it was the Team Redline driver who set the gauntlet down by claiming pole position, just four hundredths of a second over his rival Maxim Ramsteijn. Due to the heat racing structure of the series, the two rivals would not meet until the main feature race, where they would put everything on the line. Alexander Thiebe spearheaded the field from pole position in heat one, with Brian Lockwood (RaceKraft Esports) and the new driver to the series Alexander Lauritzen close behind him. Sam Kuitert (WoIP.com Volante Racing 1) made some impressive moves in the early stages and if not for a slowdown penalty would have been battling for second position. The error from Kuitert placed him in a spectacular battle, which lasted almost the entire race with Kieran Harrison, Alexander Lauritzen, Robin Östlund and Lewis Ward. An impressive heat one victory for Thiebe placed pressure on his rival for the second heat, with Brian Lockwood and Sam Kuitert rounding off the final podium positions. With the top ten from each heat qualifying for the feature race, all eyes were focused on the final top ten positions. PorscheSport Driver Gavin Halls, who has been hit with terrible luck all season, gave an impressive drive back through the field to claim the final feature spot.

Heat two looked promising for Maxim Ramsteijn who lined up on the front row ahead of the sister HM Engineering car driven by Rasmus Busk. The slow down penalties played a big part of the opening lap as third place driver Quentiin Vialatte, had to drop down the field whilst serving his penalty. Unfortunately, the incidents didn't end there for the Prologue React Esports driver as he slammed into the side of PorscheSport driver Ryan Parkins in the opening stages, causing a number of accidents for surrounding drivers, including both Kairos Competition cars. Upfront, championship challenger Maxim Ramsteijn ensured he was still in the fight, gaining a few seconds on the battle behind. Rasmus Busk soaked up much of the chasing pack's pressure and provided a fantastic battle with Dylan Birse and Oscar Wilkens for second place. It was Birse who split the HM Engineering sister cars to come home in second with a notable drive from Pascal Costa (Impulse Racing) who came home in fourth.

The final consultation race of the season gave one last opportunity for those drivers to make the feature race, with the top ten from fourteen all progressing. PorscheSport driver Ryan Parkins lined up behind Hugo Gallo (Cartribute) on the front row, the pair both making a great start and providing the early entertainment. It was Parkins who got the move on Gallo, ultimately taking home the victory in his PorscheSport 911 cup. Gallo had second place all but secure, when an uncharacteristic error resulted in him losing control and dropping down to sixth position. Matias Birk took home second, followed by Tobias Maisel in the final podium position.

As expected, the final feature race had the championship contenders on the front row. Many would expect Alexander Thiebe and Maxim Ramsteijn to pull away from the front but Brian Lockwood, starting in third, did not read the script. It was the top three who pulled away from lights out with Lockwood certainly adding pressure to the top two potential champions. Just behind the leading group Sam Kuitert was piling on the pressure to Dylan Birse in front, although a little too eager into La Source resulted in heavy contact on the rear of Birse. The PorscheSport pairing of Gavin Halls and Ryan Parkins, who were running in each other's slipstream, were met by the recovering Dylan Birse, who may have been angered by the earlier incident, ran into the rear of Gavin Halls, ending both their races. The action was only just starting, Maxim Ramsteijn pushing very hard on the back of Alexander Thiebe resulted in him running ever so slightly wide and handing second place to Brian Lockwood. Even with Lockwood splitting the two rivals, nothing could separate the top three and at times looking like the RaceKraft Esports driver may even challenge for the lead. With 5 minutes to go Maxim Ramsteijn had to act if he had any chance of claiming the championship, the elbows came out and an impressive tussle with Lockwood, resulted in Ramsteijn finally claiming second position. Alexander Thiebe capitalized on the battle behind and managed to pull a few car lengths on the chasing pair, crossing the line just over a second ahead of his rival and becoming the PorscheSport Carrera Cup 2020 champion.

Comments after the race

Alexander Thiebe (Team Redline): "I'm super happy right now, I have to be honest, I didn't expect to win the last feature race. It's really difficult at Spa with the long straight to stay ahead if you don't have any draft. I had a bit of luck with Brian Lockwood and Maxim Ramsteijn in a battle for second place which gave me a little bit of room to breath. I'm super happy to be the champion and with the victory today. A special thanks to everyone over the whole season, the series has been very enjoyable. A big thank you to my teammates at Team Redline and our sponsors. It's very special to win the championship.”

Maxim Ramsteijn (HM Engineering): "I gave it my best all season, there really wasn't much more in it for me on pace. I was surprised to keep up with these guys in the draft actually, in the end a made a little mistake and this lost me second place and the chance to really attack Alexander Thiebe. My plan was to stay with Alexander through the race, save a little bit on the tyres and then hopefully have enough grip to make a move near the end, but my mistake threw that plan into the water. Overall, I'm very happy with the season, much better than expected for the whole team. It's great that HM Engineering are at the PorscheSport Carrera Cup Team Champions and that we could fight on this level. Alexander Thiebe is a well deserving champion, it's been a pleasure racing against him.”

Brian Lockwood (RaceKraft Esports): "That was a tough race, Spa has never been my favourite track and I have some work to do round here. I was just about to keep up with Alexander Thiebe in the draft and I was pushing with everything I had. In the end I think I overcooked my tyres and maybe went the wrong way on the set up of my car, which lost second place and a chance to battle for the lead. It's going to be a really close battle in the Porsche Supercup qualifiers that are coming up, Maxim Ramsteijn has done really well in this series and he's starting to make a name for himself and of course, super cool to run with Alexander Thiebe, I expect to be racing the two alot more in the coming weeks.”

Luke Holroyd (PorscheSport Press Officer): The season has been absolutely superb. The guys at Simpower Leagues have done a tremendous job to organise and run a league to this high standard, to Oli Slade, Jacco van der Plaat, Matthew Crisp and everyone involved there, we cannot praise your work highly enough. The live broadcast provided by RaceSport TV for us, has showcased how far and how realistic sim racing and iRacing specifically has come, a special thanks to Hugo. Combined with the great commentary team of Peter Mackay and Soumil Arora, the whole series has looked ultra professional. Congratulations to Alexander Thiebe for his championship victory and to HM Engineering for their success in the team championship. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the drivers for the hours and hours of practice, their professional attitudes to the series, for creating a digital paddock where everyone is welcome and providing us with fantastic racing action. See you all in season two!”

Final Driver Standings

Alexander Thiebe 1010
Maxim Ramsteijn 907
Dylan Birse 429
Brian Lockwood 420
Kieran Harrison 389
Quentiin Vialatte 384
Robin Östlund 350
Sam Kuitert 302
Justin Tipton 277
Artem Grabow 247

Team Standings

HM Engineering 1296
Team Redline 1010
WoIP.com Volante Racing 1 512
RaceKraft Esports #2 481
Wild Animals 1 453
Team Bergen 435
PorscheSport 397
Prologue React Esports 384
RaceKraft Esports 370
GOTeam Racing 350

Alken Tech Champion (Highest number of positions a driver has gained in heat races over the season): Hendryk Lichtenhagen