Fernando Alonso enjoys mixed fortunes on his esports debut – FOS Future Lab

Alonso joined the ranks of the Legends Trophy for a double-header at Zandvoort on Saturday, but had quite the introduction. After qualifying in fourth, the two-time world champion ended up nosing into the inside barrier in turn one, before he was collected by an aerial Oriol Servia at turn six.

A further collision later on with both Adrian Fernandez and Helio Castroneves ended his race, and he fared little better in race two. A coming-together with Tiago Monteiro in the final, heavily banked turn saw both cars take to the skies and out of the race.

The Legends races proved much more fruitful for Jenson Button. A 2^nd-place finish in race one behind Jan Magnussen, backed up with a 5^th in the reverse grid saw him take the championship lead from Emanuele Pirro – who won that second race ahead of Andy Priaulx.

Two other ex-F1 stars were making their esports debuts in the F1 Esports Challenge Heineken Legends: David Coulthard, and 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg. After a series of special events, the two took part in a 25 per cent race distance run at COTA, and this ended with Rosberg spinning and then collecting Coulthard as he rejoined.

There was further chaos in the Formula E race at Hong Kong. In scenes reminiscent of the 2017 FIA GT World Cup event in Macau, just about all of the field was caught in a turn one crash which briefly turned the track into a car park.

A few cars escaped unscathed, including pole-sitter Edoardo Mortara. However Mortara had an accident of his own at the notorious turn three chicane a few laps later, allowing Pascal Wehrlein to cruise past and take a second successive win. Wehrlein now leads the championship from Maximilian Guenther – also a double race-winner – thanks to the latter’s DNF.

McLaren driver Ben Barnicoat gave Woking its first win in the SRO GT Series, at the Nürburgring GP circuit. The British driver took the lead from Louis Delatraz with just ten minutes of the hour-long race remaining, but then had to deal with the Swiss driver coming back at him. At the chequered flag, the two were separated by just 0.07s, in the McLaren’s favour.

That made it a British-brand double, as Jesus Sicilia won the Silver Series race – for sim-drivers – in the Aston Martin, despite the weather taking a turn for the wetter. The result puts F1 Esports World Champion David Tonizza in the Silver Series championship lead for Ferrari, while Barnicoat tops the Pro Series table.

Welcome to FOS Future Lab where we report on the latest visions of future technology. We'll be boldly covering flying cars, hoverboards, jetpacks and spaceships with plenty of down to earth topics in between.