Marco Butti claims 2024 FIA Motorsport Games touring car gold medal
GOAT Racing driver Marco Butti (Honda) charged up through the field to claim the gold medal of the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games in Valencia.
Rain started spitting over the Ricardo Tormo circuit ten minutes ahead of the start, with the entire field still on slick tyres.
Disaster struck René Kircher who retired to the pits at the end of the formation lap with his Honda due to a technical issue.
RC2 Motorsport driver Ignacio Montenegro (Honda) led at the start, followed by Monlau Motorsport’s Eric Gené and Raphael Reis, both driving Cupra Leon VZ TCRs.
Janík Motorsport’s Adam Kout (Hyundai) overtook Gené at Turn 2, but the Spaniard hit the Czech in the following corner, with the Hyundai driver spinning and falling down the order.
Kout lost a side plate at the beginning of lap two and came under fire from Danish Honda driver René Povlsen for sixth place.
Jenson Brickley received a drive-through penalty for not respecting the start procedure and dropped to the back of the field.
Butti attacked and overtook Reis for third place on lap five and quickly closed the gap to Gené, claiming second place from the Cupra driver at the last corner.
Gené made a mistake and spun on lap six, falling to sixth position, as the drivers struggled on slick tyres as the track got wetter.
Montenegro continued in the lead, but with Butti quickly closing the gap as rainfall increased. Butti was just 1.5 seconds behind Montenegro with 12 minutes to go of the race.
Comte overtook Reis for third place on lap eleven, but went wide and the Brazilian quickly regained the position.
Butti made contact with Montenegro on lap 12 trying to find a way past for the lead. The duo went side-by-side at Turn 1 on lap 13, with Montenegro banging into the side of Butti several times. But it was not enough and Butti headed into the lead while the Argentinian driver received a warning for the incident.
Further back, Comte struggled with the conditions and lost fourth place to Kout and Gené. The Frenchman then bumped the Czech driver who lost two positions, with the incident being investigated after the race.
Butti won the race with a margin of six seconds ahead of Montenegro. Comte, who bumped into Reis on the last lap, received a 20-second time penalty after the race which dropped him to seventh place and handed Gené the final podium position.
Reis finished fourth, followed by Kout and Polvsen. Brickley finished eighth, with Turkey’s Zekai Özen (Audi RS 3 LMS) in ninth, and Umar Abdullah (Honda Civic FL5 TCR) completing the top ten.
