Mattia Pasini dominates the Ferrari All Stars Racing Night. Reigning champion De Salvo fights back almost to the podium

On 16 March, the presentation of the new Ferrari Esports season, the Maranello marque’s virtual racing championship

The world championship motorcycle stars dominated the Ferrari All Stars Racing Night this evening, which featured 20 Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo cars fighting it out on the very spectacular Mugello track. The race, which launched the presentation of the new Ferrari Esports season which starts on 16 March was Mattia Pasini, who has 12 world championship race wins across the 125, 250 and Moto2 classes. Second was Marco Grana, the Team Principal of Sic58 Squadra Corse, while third was the works driver for the Ferrari Competizioni GT team, Nicklas Nielsen. However, Valentino Rossi was out of luck, struggling with connection problems right from the start of qualifying and in the end he had to retire from the race.

Special commentators. But the nine times world champion motorcyclist wanted to be do his bit for the evening and joined Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc, commentating on the race on the Ferrari Esports Twitch channel. Apart from Pasini, the Monegasque driver was also impressed with the Ferrari sim drivers, Giovanni De Salvo and Amos Laurito, who, because of their proficiency on the Assetto Corsa platform were given the handicap of starting from the pit lane 20 seconds after the rest of the field had left the grid. De Salvo, who is the reigning Ferrari Esports champion, fought his way back up the order to finish just off the podium, with Laurito right behind him. Leigh and Tonizza were tenth and twelfth respectively: their race was definitely complicated by the fact that they were held in the pit lane for 40 seconds instead of 20. The Ferrari Driver Academy’s Marcus Armstrong was in the top three for much of the race, until he was involved in a collision with MotoGP commentator Mauro Sanchini. 

The new season. As mentioned, the All Stars Racing Night in Mugello preceded the new Ferrari Esports season which is officially launched on Tuesday 16 March in an on-line event. The Maranello marque’s one-make virtual series will reveal several new elements and the competitor selection process will soon be underway.