George Russell has secured his first Esports Virtual Grand Prix victory with a nail-biting success over Charles Leclerc at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a✱ race that was turned on its head by a dramatic last-minute penalty.

The first win for both Russell and Williams i🔥n the fifth event of the virtual season, the Briton had started from pole position but a poor start dropped him to as low as sixth early on before surging back into contention in the second-half of the race.

However, it was the 🌳late twist of penalties for both Russell and Leclerc that made the difference after Russell, having closed the gap down to the Ferrari driver during the second stint was handed a three-second time penalty for multiple warnings.

Undeterred, Russell – via some questionable track limit lines into the chicane - pushed on to overtake Leclerc on laಞp 25 of 33 as they raced into turn one. Though the Monegasque got him back the following lap, a definitive move by the Williams man on lap 28 gave him just five laps to try and pull enough of a gap to negate the penalty.

However, while Leclerc was able to stay within two seconds as they rounded the penultimate lap, he threw his chances of a third win from four races away by 𓄧picking up his own three-second pena🍸lty after cutting the chicane

As such, Russell eased to victory, in turn becoming the fourth different winner in five events after Guanyu Zhou🐷, Leclerc and Alex Albon.

Esteban Gutierr♔ez notched up a podium for Mercedes with a measured drive to third, the Mexican driver leading initially after getting the jump over Russell on the line before being shuffled back.

Albon, meanwhile, could only manage fourth place despite💦 having the advantage through the first stint when he got the better of both Gutierrez and Leclerc. The Red Bull driver pitted from the lead early on lap eight as a prelude to a two-stop strategy but after emerging on hard tyres for his third stint couldn’t make up enough ground in the closing stages.

Nicholas Latifi made it two Williams’ in♚side the top five in fifth place, ahead of Mercedes’ Anthony Davidson, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Haas driver Pietro Fit✤tipaldi. Antoni Fuoco and Max Fewtrell rounded out the top ten for Ferrari and Renault respectively.

Elsewhere, Lando Norris’ now infamous glitches st🐈ruck him again as he trundled around at the back before eventually retirജing, while footballers Thiabaut Courtois and Sergio Aguero gave a decent account of themselves with a run to 12th and 14th respectively.