Will Murdoch claimed the silver medal for the United Kingdom after finishing second in the inaugural Olympic Esports motorsport event in Singapore.

Having qualified fifth out of the 10 available spots for global competitors, Murdoch flew to Singapore for the three-day International Olympic Committee event which featured the likes of cycling, archery and tennis alongside motorsport.

The motorsport competition, using Sony’s hit racing sim Gran Turismo 7, kicked off with a pre-qualifying session where the fastest 11 would progress to qualifying and a 42-lap race around the game’s Deep Forest Raceway in the Toyota GR010 Hybrid ‘21 World Endurance Championship machine.

Murdoch made it through comfortably, and went on to qualify third for the race in Sunday’s qualifying session – just behind Kylian Drumont (France) and polesitter Angel Inostroza of Chile.

The competitors had three tyre choices available for the race, which offered up multiple strategies as Murdoch and Drumont started on the longer-life medium tyre while Inostroza opted for the quicker but rapidly-degrading softs.

Murdoch held third place for the majority of the first half of the race, and after the pitstops the top three remained stagnant – Inostroza ahead of Drumont – before the Frenchman attacked and took the lead on lap 35 with some contact later deemed to be a racing incident.

Murdoch also found a way past Inostraza on the penultimate lap, thus securing second place – and silver – for the United Kingdom as Drumont took gold for France with victory.

Murdoch was one of thousands of hopeful qualifiers to take part in the 10-day public pre-event time trial which determined the 10 competitors to be invited to Singapore. Available to anyone with access to Gran Turismo 7 and an internet connection, entrants could do as many laps as they wished around the imaginary Deep Forest Raceway in the Toyota, and ultimately Murdoch’s 1’14.831 put him an impressive fifth in the final leaderboard, securing his ticket to the event.

Interested in learning more about simulated racing and Esports? Motorsport UK’s dedicated Esports website has everything you need on how to get started.