Ignacio Montenegro wins incident-packed FIA Motorsport Games qualifying race

RC2 Motorsport driver Ignacio Montenegro (Honda) claimed a lights-to-flag victory in the FIA Motorsport Games qualifying race at Valencia despite receiving a time penalty.

The Argentinian driver took the lead from the pole position as the lights went out, with Monlau Motorsport’s Eric Gené (Cupra) and SP Competition’s Aurélien Comte (Cupra) overtaking Raphael Reis at Turn 1 for second and third place.

Soon after the lights had gone out, Montenegro received a five-second time penalty for a jump start.

Jenson Brickley went hard into the back of Reis at Turn 5, with the Brazilian driver suffering damage to his rear right end and headed into the pits at the end of lap one while Brickley retired two laps later.

Marco Butti (Honda) got a good start from ninth on the grid and took advantage of the on-track incidents to be in fourth place at the end of the first lap, but the Italian also received a track limits warning.

The safety car was called into action as GOAT Racing’s Megan Tomlison (Audi RS 3 LMS) spun off the track and got stuck in the gravel trap.

Reis returned to the track during the safety car period, joining the back of the pack.

The race was green again on lap eight, with Butti attacking Comte for third place and the two ran side-by-side for several corners. Comte was able to stay ahead of the Italian driver.

Reis continued charging ahead from the back of the field and was already up to eighth place on lap nine, right behind TPR Motorsport’s René Polvsen.

Honda driver René Kircher retired on lap ten with engine trouble at the end of the main straight. Butti overtook Comte for third place on the same lap.

Comte was then hit with a drive-through penalty because of track limits at the end of lap ten, with Butti receiving the same penalty on the following lap. The Italian rejoined the track just behind the Frenchman, dropping to seventh and eighth place respectively.

Montenegro worked hard to open up a gap to Gené in the lead in order to compensate for his five-second penalty for jumping the start. Further behind, Butti received a black flag because of track limits.

Meanwhile, Comte caught up with Umar Abdullah and Avik Anwar, overtaking both to climb up to sixth place.

Montenegro won as the chequered flag dropped and managed to just keep the win ahead of Gené, crossing the finishing line 5.558 seconds ahead of his Cupra rival.

Hyundai driver Adam Kout finished third ahead of the charging Reis, with Polvsen and Comte in fifth and sixth place. Abdullah was seventh, with Avrik closing the classification in eighth place.

The touring car main race of 30 minutes plus one lap is scheduled for Sunday morning at 09:45 CET.