Lamborghini crowns first 'Real Race' Champion

However, Naujoks immediately took the lead at the start, and began to build a small gap. That became larger when Lacombe spun leaving turn five - and with a damaged car and the rain starting to fall, the Frenchman just kept losing spots. Despite the showers, all but Lacombe opted to remain out on track, pretty much preserving the status quo. That left Naujoks out in front by a large margin from Kamil Pawlowski, but all the action was going on behind.

Jordan Sherratt was the man who crossed the finish line in third, but he was later handed a massive 50-second post-race penalty. The reason for this wasn’t caught on the stream, but seems to have been the result of a penultimate-lap contact with Arthur Kammerer, with the stewards opting to move the South African behind the German in the results.

Naujoks then took pole for the final race, at Mount Panorama, by 0.042s from Lacombe, and Sherratt just nine thousandths further back. This proved a race of attrition, with several of the 11 runners retiring to the pits with damage - including Kammerer.

For the most part this seemed to be a straight fight between Naujoks and Lacombe, who’d gapped Sherratt in third, but another penultimate lap incident changed the order dramatically. After 20 laps of racing within mere tenths of one another, the lead duo tangled at Griffin’s. Lacombe came off second-best and ended his race in the wall, barely two minutes from victory.

That left Lacombe with no points on the board, while Naujoks scored the maximum of 41 to take the title. His prize will be a trip to Sant’Agata Bolognese, to drive in Lamborghini’s own simulator, along with a chance to drive the Imola circuit in a Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo Evo. He’ll be joined by Sherratt and Matthias Egger, who both finished on 20 points to take second and third - in Egger’s case from solid 4th and 5th place finishes by staying out of the trouble that affected most of the rest of the field.

Porsche’s TAG Heuer Esports Supercup has improbably been prolonged by one further race, as the UK’s Sebastian Job narrowly missed out on sealing the title in the races on Circuit de la Sarthe. Last season’s winner, Joshua Rogers, took a second place finish in the sprint race and a win in the feature race to take the championship down to its final weekend.

Rogers held off Job in the feature race by just 0.3s, to score just enough points to prevent his rival from taking the title. With two races left in the final round at Italy’s Monza circuit, Job leads Rogers by 71 points - with Job only needing six more to be crowned champion.

Porsche also retains the lead in the V10 R-League, but lost its first point of the season to Red Bull in last week’s races at the Nurburgring. Williams missed a chance to join Porsche at the top of the table, courtesy of a tie in its final race against the Suzuki team, while BMW moves up to third after a match win against the Racing Point squad.