Latest Le Mans Esports Series hot lap qualifier begins

The second LMES season, which is run as a collaboration between the World Endurance Championship, Le Mans organiser the Automobile Club de l'Ouest and Motorsport Games, boasts a prize pool of $200,000. 

Gamers can qualify for September’s Super Final by setting the fastest lap in Peugeot’s 2009 Le Mans winning LMP1 car around a virtual Circuit of the Americas on Forza Motorsport 7. 

To enter the hot lap competition, gamers should head to the Rivals section on Forza and register their fastest time in the in-game LMES event. Entries will close at midnight on June 19, with the fastest qualifiers from each region progressing to the Super Final. 

The LMES Super Final will take place on the same September 19/20 weekend of the re-scheduled real-world 24 Hours of Le Mans - following its postponement from its usual June 13/14 date. 

The inaugural LMES Super Final was held alongside the real-world event in 2019, with Veloce Esports narrowly winning the first-ever championship. 

The gamers who qualify for this year’s Super Final will compete in a Pro-Am event for their share of the $50,000 prize pool. 

An additional $100,000 will be up for grabs in the Pro Team event at the Super Final. 

Six professional sim racing teams qualified for that event in a five-round series, which concluded in April and was won by Red Bull Esports in a tense final-round decider. 

Williams Esports, who also won the inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual last month, booked its place in the Pro Team finale by winning the onsite qualification event at the 2020 Autosport International Show. 

Peugeot 2009 Le Mans screenshot

Photo by: Microsoft

Peugeot 2009 Le Mans screenshot

Photo by: Microsoft

The latest virtual Pro-Am qualification venue, COTA, returned to the real-world WEC calendar in February earlier this year as the Lone Star Le Mans event, after a one-season absence from the calendar. 

The highly successful Peugeot 908 raced at five consecutive Le Mans races from 2007 and won the 2009 race with ex-F1 drivers turned sportscars aces Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham at the wheel. 

For more information on the seventh LMES qualifier, visit https://www.lemansesports.com.