Slovenian Kevin Siggy is the 2022 DTM Esports champion

Kevin Siggy has taken the  DTM Esports Championship powered by MediaMarkt title by storm. With a pair of wins with the Team Redline Ferrari 488 in the finale at the virtual Portimão race track, the Slovenian underlined his dominance. The tiny chance of a successful title defence for BMW driver Moritz Löhner (GER, Dörr Esports) already went up in smoke in the sprint race. Eventually, Siggy had an unbelievable margin of 100 points on Löhner. The sim racers staged two spectacular races. The battle for third, fourth and fifth place in the standings was extremely hard in particular. After all, the five best-placed drivers qualify for the shoot-out for the real-world DTM Trophy drive in 2023. Next to champion Siggy and runner-up Löhner, the two Italian Ferrari drivers Gianmarco Fiduci (Team Fordzilla) and Alessandro Ottaviani (R8G Esports) as well as Florian Hasse (GER, Dörr Esports) round out the top five, but this order is still provisional because of pending penalties. In any case, DTM Esports delivered a spectacular foretaste of this weekend’s DTM season opener at the real-world Formula 1 circuit at Portimão in Portugal. The record field of 29 drivers from 15 nations will be competing in the first two of this season’s 16 races on Saturday and Sunday at 1.30pm CEST, broadcast live on ProSieben in the German-speaking countries from 12.30pm and 1pm respectively and on the ServusTV stream.

“I have invested a lot of time in the preparation and the set-up work. Now, I am even happier to have won the DTM Esports title, my first title in quite a while,” said 23-year-old Kevin Siggy, who showed rather uncharacteristic emotions once his early title win was safe following his victory in the sprint race. “Opting for Ferrari was a good decision and the set-up work was the key to success.” Now, he is looking forward to his participation in the shoot-out. “Being able to participate in the real-world DTM Trophy in 2023 is my goal and I will do everything to achieve that.”

Action at the 4.563 kilometres long Portimão circuit was exciting. As ever so often during a finale, the battles were intense, something that gave race control quite some work. Especially the positions from fourth place onwards were in focus. The first one affected was Löhner’s teammate Leonard Krippner (GER, BMW), who was tapped into a spin on the opening lap of the 15-minute sprint race already by nobody else but Ottaviani. Sixth in the standings prior to the finale, Krippner still had good chances of securing a top 5 result. After his mishap, Krippner, who had started from second on the grid, showed a strong recovery drive and still made it home in sixth place. Teammate Hasse spun out as well and eventually only finished in 21st place. Ferrari scored a 1-2 with Siggy finishing ahead of Fiduci. Third place for Löhner, meanwhile, was insufficient to keep his minimal title hopes alive. Max Pfeiffer (GER, TailoredRing Esports) was the best-placed Mercedes-AMG driver in fourth from Brit Isaac Price (BMW, BMW G2 Esports), Krippner and Ottaviani.

Prior to the 60-minute endurance race, Siggy claimed the second pole position of the day. The Slovenian pulled clear from the rest of the field and scored another commanding win. Likewise, Fiducci also pulled away from second on the grid and thus secured third place in the points’ standings. “I am totally happy. I never expected this result. In the finale, I only gave it 95 percent and safely managed this second place,” the 25-year-old said. Max Pfeifer (GER) also underlined his improving shape by scoring his maiden podium result in the final race of the season. Behind them, however, the action was intense: Krippner and Hasse again became victims of the harsh antics and massively dropped back. Löhner, now driving without any pressure for the title, offered his services for the Dörr team, staging a really hard and partly thrilling duel with Ottaviani while Krippner made up more and more ground in a gala display, gradually closing up to Löhner who eventually let him past. Ottaviani defended tooth and nail, sometimes too intensely, so that the Ferrari driver still has to fear a retroactive penalty by race control that could cost him his participation in the shoot-out. Ottaviani just defended fourth place from a strong, but unfortunately Krippner while Hasse secured fifth place in the points’ standings by finishing tenth. Following a spin on the final lap, Löhner only finished twelfth. “This day wasn’t particularly lucky for me,” a disappointed Löhner summed up. “At the end, I fought for my teammates.”

Kevin Siggy as the new DTM Esports champion scored a commanding total of 466 points, Moritz Löhner became runner-up with 366 points from Gianmarco Fiduci (293). Alessandro Ottaviani is provisionally fourth with 251 points, just one point clear of Florian Hasse (250). Due to pending decisions by race control, however, Leonard Krippner (245) in sixth place also still can hope to be participating in the shoot-out for the DTM Trophy drive.

The best of the three qualifiers from the DTM Esports Cup powered by MediaMarkt was Julien Fox (GER), 15th in the endurance race with the Team TR powered by Greekz Energy BMW.