The Brands Battle on Brands Hatch

And some battles it were! The top spots in the Brand Cup Races of Brands Hatch seemed more desirable than in any of the previous editions. The drivers went hard on each other in their attempts to earn a ticket to the third Semi-Final of the season.

The most significant break with past was noticeable in the BMW Cup Race. Where it had hosted the cleanest races in the previous two editions, the races now were tough and sometimes touched the border of the acceptable. The good thing was that the races became unpredictable and ended with a surprise. Two of the four qualifiers for the Semi-Final are Demo drivers. Bastien Bartsch, who dominated the Demo Race last Thursday, took the win in race one and claimed the overall win in the BMW Cup and was accompanied by the number two of the Demo Race, Hendrik von Eye, who finished third in the BMW Cup. Marco Schade claimed second position with two solid podium finishes. Fourth was Markus Kononen who beat Samuel Libeert only slightly to the last Semi-Final ticket.

The Chevrolet Cup was, even more than in Valencia , all about Henrik Horvath. A Brand Cup Race had never been dominated like he did. Claiming the win in both races Horvath scored the maximum amount of points and therefore is the undisputed top qualifier of the Brand Cup Race of Brands Hatch. Behind him the other three drivers struggled for the other three tickets. Carsten Hörenbaum followed on a respectable distance, claiming two podiums and the second position in the Chevy Cup. Michal Dekanek and Benjamin Clique both sufficed by claiming a podium and grabbed the last two tickets.

The Honda Cup seemed to be heading for a clear and transparent event, as Tamas Bajka, Guy Edwards and Courtenay Smith safe drove to the podium in that specific order. However race two was quite more eventful. At the end of the first lap the number two, Emerson Faria, spun of and bounced back on track, right in the way of Tony Gonzales and Bajka. The latter's race was over immediately, as was that of Faria. In the meantime Jason Pitts, invisible in the first race, maintained the lead and kept it till the checkered flag. Behind him Edwards was finding his way to second position and secured a ticket to The Semi-Final. Smith was going for third and was also on his way to secure a ticket, until the last lap, where he blew his engine and caused an accident in which he dragged Karoly Kajdy. Both their chances we spoiled and from a chanceless position Gonzales passed them and became fourth, just enough to claim the last ticket. Edwards, Pitts, Bakja and Gonzales qualified.

Of course the SEAT Cup, traditionally a very spectacular cup, cannot be left out of the report. The event was exciting till the very last lap of race two, with six drivers constantly being close to the four Semi-Final tickets. In race one Roman Meier and Nick Ansell pulled away from the field. Eventually Ansell overtook Meier and claimed the win. Behind them Stoffel Vandoorne and Martijn van Bommel drove together as if they were twins and would continue to do so throughout race two. The stage was set and these drivers would secure the tickets in race two, but not before they had successfully defended the attacks of the competition. Thomas Jensen and Sebastien Degraeve were on the look out and for a long time it seemed that Jensen, leader of the race by then, would take possession of a ticket. Only when the twins managed to put him back in third the top four of race one was safe.

> A video coverage of the races will be out soon!

> Check the results of the Brands Hatch Brand Cup Races here!

About V-WTCC
The "Virtual World Touring Car Championship", or V-WTCC, is a unique project developed and managed by SimBin Studios in close cooperation with Eurosport Events and the official V-WTCC partners AMD, CHEVROLET, MONROE, Olidata, YOKOHAMA, and fun.pokerroom.com.

V-WTCC is a virtual world championship based on RACE 07- The Official WTCC Game where people from around the globe test their skills as virtual drivers o line and onsite in the most accurate representation of the WTCC cars ever created.