© Oracle Red Bull Sim RacingRound 1 PESC: Webster’s Last-Lap MagicCooper Webster delivered a brilliant last lap overtake to claim a dramatic Feature Race victory during Round 1 of the 2025 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup at Daytona International Speedway.
AfterfinishingthirdintheSprintRace,theOracleRedBullSimRacingdrivercamefromthethirdrowonthegridtosecurehisfirstwinoftheseason.
The result leaves him with 78 points and a 15-point lead over Florian Lebigre at the top of the Drivers’ Standings after Round 1.
Meanwhile, it was damage limitations for Sebastian Job who had his day adversely impacted by a spin on the opening lap of the Sprint Race.
The reigning champion was able to recover some pride during the Feature Race though, with a P13 finish earning 16 points for the Team.
The day got off to a good start for Webster in qualifying as the Australian put his car on the front row alongside polesitter Lebigre thanks to an impressive flying lap.
Job was less pleased with his qualifying performance and started the Sprint Race from P22, only for him to lose ground following a spin in the opening stages of Lap 1.
Seb spins out© Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing
Webster was unable to hold onto second-place at the start and fell back to P3 after ceding a position to Chris Lulham.
What followed was a fairly uneventful eight laps, with neither Webster nor Job able to make up ground despite their best efforts. Webster applied some pressure to Lulham and Lebigre ahead but could not make a move stick and settled for a fine third-place finish, while Job came home in 27th.
With the top eight reversed for the Feature Race, Webster started well from sixth on the grid, taking advantage of a mistake from leader Alessandro Bico on Lap 3 to ascend the order. With Bico running wide, Webster sensed an opportunity and slipped up the inside of Alejandro Sánchez and Luke McKeown who failed to react, before passing the freefalling Bico too for third position.
Sánchez briefly hit back at Webster on Lap 4, passing Webster while he had his eyes on Mitchell DeJong in front, but the Aussie returned the favour on the following lap after Sánchez briefly lost control on the exit of the International Horseshoe.
Job was also keen to make early progress and managed to climb up to P17 during the opening few laps thanks to some nice overtakes and a collision that caught up several drivers towards the back of the field. He then passed Tristan Iglesias and Nicolas Mateo in a matter of corners on Lap 5, before taking advantage of a mistake by Lebigre on the following lap to take another position.
Seb avoids collision© Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing
The battle was raging at the front, with places changing hands regularly. Sánchez made his move on Lap 7, leapfrogging Webster and DeJong to move into P2, with McKeown following closely behind. However, Webster made some moves of his own a lap later, passing DeJong and then McKeown to re-emerge in third, before overtaking Sánchez for P2 on Lap 9 with a clever move up the inside at Turn 1.
As the lap count ticked down, Webster and Sánchez continued to trade places and jockey for position behind Rankin. However, Sánchez was unable to maintain the pressure and with three laps remaining, he fell back a spot behind McKeown.
This left Rankin, Webster and McKeown running nose to tail as the final lap began, with all three drivers attempting to position themselves for the run to the line. With the drivers three abreast as they took the chequered flag, it was Webster who had just managed to get his nose just ahead and claim a classic victory.
Cooper wins Round 1!© Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing
Elsewhere, Job came home in P13, unable to make further progress in the closing stages after a brilliant start. Nonetheless, he bagged valuable points and sits 14th among drivers after Round 1.
On his stellar opening round, Cooper said: "I'm over the moon with my results at Daytona. I'm super proud of my performance, from the start of qualifying, all the way to the chequered flag. All my hard work and prep with the Team really gave me all the confidence I needed to deliver in the event. I hope to keep up this level into the next round. I will approach every session and lap one at a time from here on to the end of the season to stay consistent."
Sebastian said: "Very disappointing opening round for me. I completely missed T1 on my qualifying lap and lost somewhere between 3 and 4 tenths. The rest of my lap felt really good and was enough to fight for pole, which was a shame. Some contact in the opening lap of the Sprint saw me spin out with no prospect of points, but in the Feature I managed to fight from P27 to P13 with some solid pace and overtakes. Some points on the board at least, but really not reflective of what I had pace for.
