VALENCIA, Spain — Spain is celebrating its first-ever gold medals at the FIA Motorsport Games after triumphing in both Rally2 Gravel and Rally4 Gravel, while Italy has won Historic Rally Gravel.
All three categories culminated today at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, with Jose Antonio Suarez / Alberto Iglesias taking the win for the host nation in Rally2 Gravel.
Sergi Perez / Axel Coronado were the victorious Spanish crew in Rally4 Gravel, while Historic Rally Gravel went the way of Andrea Zivian / Nicola Arena, their second gold after securing Historic Rally honors in 2022.
Friday also brought significant activity at Circuit Ricardo Tormo. Five of the six Circuit categories were in action, while the venue also hosted the opening Auto Slalom sessions. At nearby Aspar Circuit, a combined seven categories from the Karting and Off Road disciplines were running through Free Practice and Qualifying.
But perhaps the busiest venue of all was the City of Arts & Sciences, where the Esports competitors staged no fewer than 10 races during the course of the day, culminating in grids being decided for tomorrow’s Semi-Finals.
While Friday was busy, Saturday will take the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games to the next level. There is extensive action across a range of categories, including medal-deciding races for GT, Karting Endurance, Esports GT and Esports F4.
Watch the FIA Motorsports Games LIVE on SPEED SPORT 1.
GT
GT was the first category on-track this morning, with the first of its two Free Practice sessions getting underway at 08:30 before Qualifying ran at 16:15. Team Germany will start from pole in Saturday’s Qualifying Race, which sets the grid for the Main Race at 16:30.
The grid was decided by a pair of 15-minute sessions which ran back to back. One driver from each crew contested the first session, while their respective teammates took the controls for the second session.
Hubert Haupt put the German-livered Mercedes-AMG on top in Q1 with a time of 1m32.937s, establishing a comfortable advantage of 0.666s over the second-fastest car. This put Finn Wiebelhaus in a very strong position to secure pole, which the youngster did in style by topping his qualifying segment with a 1m31.924s.
Team Great Britain’s Chris Froggatt was a close second in Q2, lapping just 0.080s shy of Wiebelhaus. This was enough to elevate the UK-flagged Ferrari to P2 on the grid for tomorrow’s qualifying race after James Cottingham had placed fourth in Q1. Lithuania will start third on the grid with Arūnas Geciauskas (2nd in Q1) and Jonas Karklys (3rd in Q2), while China bagged fifth with Yaqi Zhang (3rd) and Kang Ling (6th). Both of these entries run Audi machinery.
Single-Make GT – Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli saw tight competition and falling lap times across its opening two practice sessions on Friday.
The field of 11 Ferrari 296 Challenge cars – representing 11 different countries – were led in Practice 1 by Davit Kajaia of Team Georgia and in Practice 2 by Axel Sartingen of Team Germany. In both sessions, the top five Ferraris were separated by less than one second.
Additionally, Single-Make GT saw quicker lap times in Practice 2 versus Practice 1, as Sartingen’s time was more than half a second faster than Kajaia’s.
Finishing behind Kajaia in the morning session was hometown hero, Team Spain’s Ivan Velasco Sanchez, while Sartingen landed third on the leaderboards before his even quicker pace in the afternoon.
In Practice 2, it was Angelo Carlo Fontana Oliviero from Team Venezuela finishing second and Christophe Hunri from Team Switzerland piloting his Ferrari to third.
Touring Car kicked off on Friday with a pair of 30-minute Free Practice sessions. Team Argentina posted the best time in FP1 before Italy hit the front in FP2. Qualifying and the Qualifying Race run on Saturday at 09:55 and 15:20 respectively.
Formula 4
Formula 4 also ran two Free Practice sessions on Friday. Team Greece paced the first ahead of Spain, while Israel hit the front in FP2 with the host nation once again slotting into second spot. The Formula 4 contenders will contest Qualifying at 08:30 on Saturday followed by a 20-minute Qualifying Race at 12:50.
Spain earned the first Rally2 gold medal of the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games by winning the Gravel class, and the host country also holds the Overall category lead. Spain’s specialist pairing of Jose Suárez / Alberto Inglesias Pin (Škoda Fabia) built enough of an advantage during the day to secure the victory over Türkiye.
Sergi Perez and co-driver Axel Coronado built on their Friday morning supremacy to claim the Rally4 Gravel gold medal for Spain. Fielding a Peugeot 208, the pair established a healthy advantage courtesy of winning two out of the opening three stages.
Sergi Perez and co-driver Axel Coronado built on their Friday morning supremacy to claim the Rally4 Gravel gold medal for Spain. Fielding a Peugeot 208, the pair established a healthy advantage courtesy of winning two out of the opening three stages.
Esports
For a new addition to the Games, Esports F4 made a lasting impression with three superb Quarter-Finals in which the teams from Singapore, Netherlands and Hungary scorched into Saturday’s Semi-Finals.
Team Singapore introduced Esports F4 in spectacular fashion, with Ar Muhammad Aleef Mohamed Rafik scoring victory in a breathless opening race. Mohamed Rafik ran within a multi-car lead pack throughout, eventually hitting the front and holding off a late challenge from Team Malaysia’s Nabil Azlan to secure the result. One of the pre-event favorites, Team Brazil, so nearly lost out after a dramatic brush with Team Switzerland into Malmedy sent driver Luis Felipe de Sá Tavares into a half spin. He managed to recover the monster moment, and eventually slipped back past Switzerland’s Jimmy Antunes to grab the final podium place after a superb fightback.
The second Quarter-Final proved even more dramatic, with Team Netherlands taking a surprise win as the race leaders clashed on the run to the line. The race boiled down to a straight fight between Spain, Chile and the Netherlands, with Team Spain’s Pablo Espes De Haro starting the final lap ahead before an audacious move from Team Chile’s Nicólas Rubilar around the outside of the Bus Stop Chicane appeared to give Chile the decisive edge. But when the two cars then clashed on corner exit, Team Netherlands’ Isaac Lennert Gillissen came through to win it at the flag. Team Italy’s Tommaso Zappalà grabbed second ahead of the delayed Espes De Haro.
Team Hungary completed an incredible run of races by scoring a stunning win in the last Quarter-Final, despite going into the final turn in third. Hungary, Republic of Korea and Czechia escaped the pack by drafting each other, and it looked like Czechia has stolen it when Martin Kadlečik slipped ahead out of Courbe Paul Frère on the last lap, with Gyumin Kim from Korea following through Maison Blanche. But Hungary’s Attila Bucsi pulled off a stunning double undercut through the Bus Stop to snatch the win at the flag.
Rally
Spain earned the first Rally2 gold medal of the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games by winning the Gravel class, and the host country also holds the Overall category lead. Spain’s specialist pairing of Jose Suárez / Alberto Inglesias Pin (Škoda Fabia) built enough of an advantage during the day to secure the victory over Türkiye.
Sergi Perez and co-driver Axel Coronado built on their Friday morning supremacy to claim the Rally4 Gravel gold medal for Spain. Fielding a Peugeot 208, the pair established a healthy advantage courtesy of winning two out of the opening three stages.
Andrea Zivian and Nicola Arena returned to the top of the Historic Rally podium for Italy by snaring the Gravel class gold, while the Great Britain sits first in the Overall category. Having won when Historic Rally made its FIA Motorsport Games debut in 2022, “Zippo” and Arena added their second gold on Friday.
Auto Slalom
Slovakia led the way in Friday’s Auto Slalom Qualifying at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, beating defending gold medallist Germany to P1. The top 16 nations will progress to Saturday’s Eight-Final, with the competition now shifting to a head-to-head knockout format. Slovakia will compete against today’s 16th fastest team, Albania.
Karting
Such has been the vast entry for the Karting Mini category – which makes its FIA Motorsport Games debut in 2024 – the 40-strong entry was split into two groups for Practice and Qualifying Practice sessions. Team USA driver Joshua Bergman secured pole position for each of his three heats.
Team Switzerland’s Chiara Bättig proved to be the class of the field in the Karting Sprint Jnr category for drivers aged 11-14 as she edged out the Netherlands and Türkiye in the faster second Qualifying Practice. Team India led the first group ahead of Spain.
The host nation was the quickest from the two Karting Sprint Snr Qualifying Practice sessions, whilst the other group was topped by Team Malta.