Defending Champion wins Formelaustria eF1 Championship Opener - Speedway Digest

The opening race of the Formelaustria eF1 Championship Season 2 at the Hockenheimring was action-packed and high class. In the end, Dominik Hofmann was able to repeat his success from last season, making the best possible start into his championship defence mission. “It was a cool first race. The key was that I did not lose any time at my pitstop, while Tim (Palm) was stuck behind a McLaren for some time after his tire change,” the Austrian analysed.

Challengers moving in

In qualifying, Hofmann had to bow to his fiercest rival Tim Palm’s pace finishing runner-up. „It was pretty close this time round. But unfortunately, I lost a lot of time following my tire stop and Dominik could capitalize on that. Finishing on P2 is a good start into the new season regardless and we have to build up on that”, Palm said, whose Williams Jim teammate Roy Arnouts completed the podium. The Dutchman showed a long battle with Palm but eventually crossed the line in third. “I tried at the start to sneak past Dominik and Tim, but it didn’t work out. The fight with Tim was good fun, but he was stronger today, so I settled for P3 and good points.”

Great Newcomers, great skill

Bringing his McLaren home in P7, Germany’s Oliver Konert was the best rookie driver, as he had already indicated in qualifying with P4. “In general, the level on the grid is even higher than in our maiden season and the opener was characterized by close, but fair wheel-to-wheel battles throughout the entire race in the whole pack,” series promoter Harry Miltner of HM Sports said. Race 2 will take place on November 24, 2019 6 pm CET at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. It will again be broadcast live Motorvision.tv and the Formelaustria YouTube Channel.

Top series as F1 Esports feeder

The eF1 Championship by Formelaustria is the first professional online Formula One league in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and their neighbouring countries. Following several highly challenging Try-outs 20 drivers booked the coveted slots on the final grid: ten Germans, two Austrians, two Italians, a Croat, a Turk, a Dutchman, an Englishman, a Portuguese and a Thai make up the grid – the latter three all live in Germany and are thus eligible. The eF1 Champion gets a chance to enter the draft of the official F1 Esports Series. Thanks to the high level of the eF1 Championship actually four drivers made it to the final round of the F1 Esports Series Draft last year.

Formelaustria.at is a product by HM Sports, an international sports consulting agency in Vienna which has been active in Formula One working with various top teams, circuits and sponsors for 16 years.

Result Round 1 Hockenheim, 25/10/2019

1.	Dominik Hofmann	Austria	Mercedes
2.	Tim Palm	Germany	Red Bull
3.	Roy Arnouts	Netherlands	Red Bull
4.	Sven Knöller	Germany	Williams
5.	Philip Wauters	Germany	Toro Rosso
6.	Daniel Alves	Portugal	Williams
7.	Oliver Konert	Germany	McLaren
8.	Liam Parnell	England	McLaren
9.	Cihan Aldemir	Turkey	Mercedes
10.	Jonathan Klose	Germany	Renault
11.	Gianluca Battaglia	Italy	Renault
12.	Niklas Clasani	Germany	Racing Point
13.	Fabian Fieber	Thailand	Ferrari
14.	Stefan Geyer	Austria	Racing Point
15.	Patrick Hadler	Germany	Ferrari
16.	Daniel Rocker	Croatia	Haas
17.	Sebastian Hermann	Germany	Toro Rosso
18.	Matthias Gigl*	Austria	Alfa Romeo
19.	Denis Graf	Germany	Haas
20.	Rico di Muro	Italy	Alfa Romeo

*Gigl is a substitute for Kevin Purkart (side-lined with illness)

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.