Ignacio Montenegro claims FIA Motorsport Games pole in Valencia

RC2 Racing’s Ignacio Montenegro (Honda) claimed the pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session at Valencia for the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games.

Despite rain during the night, the track was dry, but with the kerbs still wet.

Indonesian driver Abdullah Umar (Honda) caused an early red flag after spinning off the track and getting stuck on the gravel trap.

The entire field returned to the track as soon as the green light was shown, with Monlau Motorsport’s Eric Gené (Cupra) setting the first top time, nine seconds slower than free practice lap times on Friday.

Monlau Motorsport’s Raphael Reis rose to fourth position, but had his lap time deleted because of exceeding track limits at Turn 1.

The lap times continued improving as the outside edges of the track dried out, with Montenegro further improving the top time.

Honda driver Marco Butti had an incident with Megan Tomlinson (Audi) during the session, with both drivers seeing the stewards after.

Aurélién Comte (Cupra) rose to the top with five minutes to go, followed by Jenson Brickley (Cupra) and Danish Honda driver René Povlsen.

The lap times improved rapidly in the final minutes, with Montenegro claiming the pole position with a lap time of 1:41.236, followed by Reis, half-a-second behind and Gené in third.

Comte was fourth, six-tenths off the pace, with René Kircher (Honda) right behind. Brickley qualified in sixth place followed by Kout, a full second from the pole time.

Povlsen was eighth, followed by Butti, who struggled to improve in the final moments of the session. Tomlinson completed the top ten.

The TCR field will return to the track at 15:20 CEST this afternoon for the qualifying race.