The Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team took a fourth-place finish in this year’s Rennsport R1 championship after a hard-fought battle at the Esports World Cup.
Despite topping the points standings in the spring season, the team were eliminated early from the finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Even without progressing through to the final though, the teams still won $40,000 for being the best placed team to miss out on the overall final.
The fourth-place result still represents an improvement on the team’s placing in last year’s Esports World Cup, where they finished fifth in the teams’ championship.
Unlike last year though, the new format for 2025 means only the top three teams progressed through to the final day of competition. That’s in spite of the strong start the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team had.
Group stages
With the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team having been the highest scoring team in the Rennsport R1 spring season which took place between March and June of this year, they skipped the last chance qualifier and went straight to the group stages.
It was a strong start to proceedings as Dayne Warren finished second in the first race at Fuji Speedway. Joshua Rogers went one better at the next race as he was victorious at the Hockenheimring.
The Australian made it two wins in a row as he bested everyone else at Spa, and topped that off with the team’s fourth podium finish in the group stages as he finished third in the second race at Fuji.
Across those four races the team was second in the points standings and had earned a slot in the upper bracket playoff alongside points leaders Team Redline and third placed Virtus.pro.
Upper bracket playoffs
A three race showdown just required the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team to finish in the top two of the points standings to progress through to the final.
It got off to a shaky start for the first race, with all four Porsche drivers starting in the bottom half and Rogers down in 11th due to a slowdown penalty from qualifying.
There was an improvement after eight laps, with Charlie Collins the highest placed in fourth, and all of them placing inside the top 10.
The second race at Daytona didn’t go much better as Rogers just made the top half of the grid with sixth on the starting grid, but a mistake running deep at the bus stop chicane saw him start down in ninth and a slow-down penalty for Warren meant he started the race in last.
Rogers had worked his way up to fourth until an incident on the final lap saw him drop to last and lose vital points.
Collins inherited that fourth place with Warren just behind in fifth, but 10th for Jordan Caruso and a pointless last place finish for Rogers put the team on the back foot for the finals.
In the third and final race at Spa, a promising qualifying session with Collins taking pole position went to waste once the race got underway.
On the opening lap Warren tagged the rear if Rogers’ car on the Kemmel straight, sending Rogers in a spin and dropping him to last.
One lap later, in a battle for second place into Les Combes, Team Redline’s Kevin Siggy and Collins came together. The contact saw Collins spin off into the gravel, leaving two Porsche drivers in the bottom two places.
A third place finish for Caruso was not enough to prevent Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team from finishing last, with just 56 points compared to Virtus.pro on 111 points and Team Redline on 135.
Lower bracket playoffs
Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team were given a lifeline through a place in the lower bracket playoffs, however only the winning team would make the finals.
The first race at Monza went very well, and despite Erhan Jajovski winning for Team Vitality, Collins and Rogers completed the podium.
Warren was fifth, and sixth for Caruso gave the team the points lead after the first of three races.
However that strong run came to an end at an incident-filled second round at the Hockenheimring.
Both Rogers and Caruso were given slow-down penalties for track limits, meaning they started from the back row of the grid.
Warren did much better with third place in qualifying, but in the race he lost a few places after being forced out onto the grass on the exit of Turn 4 by Williams Esports’ Daniel Pásztor.
Then, at the Turn 6 hairpin, Collins and Warren were in the middle of a four-car wide group. The two touched, forcing Collins to spin into the path of Warren and holding up Rogers behind, leaving the three of them at the back of the pack.
Caruso was the only Porsche driver to escape that chaos, but a lap later spun at Turn 8 to drop to 11th.
Final results of sixth for Rogers, eighth for Collins, ninth for Warren and 11th for Caruso, whilst Team Vitality had their drivers first, second, third and fifth, gave Porsche Canada Esports Racing Team a lot of work to do in the final race.
Unfortunately, the team was unable to avoid drama again as Collins tagged on the rear heading into the fast Turn 3 left hander at Fuji Speedway, spinning off and dropping to last.
Rogers dropped three places from his pole position start, and despite some well-worked overtakes to recover lost ground, ultimately finished in fourth.
That, in combination with seventh for Caruso, eighth for Warren and a recovery to 10th for Collins, was not enough for Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team to qualify for the final.
Team Vitality topped the lower bracket with 156 points compared to 97 for Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team and 56 for Williams Esports.
Being the highest placed team not to progress through to the final still netted them $40,000 - an increase on the $25,000 earned from their teams’ championship result last year.
