A brilliant win at Suzuka puts Otis Lawrence in the title battle at the opening round of the F1 Sim Racing World Championship at DreamHack.

It was a dream start for Alpine across the opening three races of the F1 Sim Racing World Championship, which took place at the NEC in Birmingham last weekend. Alpine Sim Racing newcomer Otis Lawrence secured victory in the second race at Suzuka, putting him second in the Drivers’ Standings after the DreamHack event.

The 17-year-old started the new season strongly, looking quick in qualifying in Shanghai and coming away with a P7 in the race. He was also in contention for outright honours at the final round in Bahrain, until a late-race incident dropped him to eighth in the final classification. Despite that disappointment, Otis leaves DreamHack as overall runner-up, just five points off the top spot.

Victory at Suzuka

Speaking at DreamHack after taking his first win with Alpine — and the team’s first in F1 Sim Racing since 2020 — Otis was delighted with his commanding performance. “This is amazing, I’ve lost my voice with celebrating,” said the Welshman. “This team is fantastic, it’s insane. I’m so happy.” After he crossed the line, with a margin of 2.3s following 40 minutes of intense racing, the whole Alpine crew joined Otis in the celebrations.

“It’s an amazing feeling to represent Alpine in the F1 Sim Racing World Championship and I want to thank everyone for this great start to the season.” Otis qualified in Japan on the front row, just missing out on pole by 0.012s, and benefited from two jump-start penalties for his rivals, which gave him the net lead of the race. He still had to ensure he built enough of a margin when the penalties were applied, and enjoyed a close battle on his way to outright honours.

Points mean prizes

Alpine leave the NEC second overall in the Teams’ standings after scoring a total of 47 points across the opening three races. Dani Bereznay just missed out on a top ten finish in China, but did score ten points for the team with fifth place at Suzuka.

In the final race of the opening weekend in Bahrain, Dani qualified P10 and dropped to 17th on the first lap after an incident. He came back through the field to take 12th at the flag. Meanwhile, Otis again qualified second on the front row, this time missing top spot by just 0.022s.

He attempted to go for the lead at the start, but held on to second through to the pit-stop sequence. On lap 20, he made a brilliant move on the entry to Turn 2 to take the lead. Despite losing out on the penultimate lap, he tried to repass for the lead at Turn 10. After contact with a rival, we asked him to return the position leading to a dramatic three-abreast moment.

Sadly, an incident on a fraught and dramatic final lap caused Otis to pick up damage to his front wing and left him eighth in the final classification. We now look forward to the next rounds of the F1 Sim Racing World Championship which take place at Jeddah, Barcelona and Silverstone on April 22-23.

Photo Credits: Jonathon Yau