Gilles Magnus secures pole position for the Main Race

Gilles Magnus drove his Comtoyou Racing-run Audi RS 3 LMS to an authoritative victory in the Touring Car Cup’s Qualifying Race at Circuit Paul Ricard. Thus, Team Belgium’s representative secured the pole position in the Main Race that will start at 14:30, awarding medals for the FIA Motorsport Games. Magnus’ Dutch teammate Tom Coronel and Team Ireland’s Jack Young in the Honda Civic Type R run by ALM Motorsport finished second and third.

Magnus made good use of the pole to lead at the start ahead of Coronel, Young and Andreas Bäckman; behind them Teddy Clairet moved into P5 passing Isidro Callejas and Ignacio Montenegro. At the back of the field, Raphael Reis’ CUPRA stalled with a clutch issue.

As the three leaders pulled away, Callejas overtook Montenegro for sixth in lap 3 and Valters Zviedris passed Andy Yan for P8 after they made contact.

Gaps between the cars of the leading trio grew up, while there was contact between Gabriel Lusquiños and Sergio López who were fighting for P10; the Team Venezuela Audi spun and rejoined in P12.  

After closing the gap on Bäckman in the early stages, Clairet lost contact from the Swede and had to defend fifth place from Callejas who passed ahead in lap 7. However, in the following lap, Clairet retook the position. At the same time, Bäckman slowed and retired with a broken driveshaft, which promoted Clairet and Callejas to fourth and fifth.

Race control handed Young a five-second penalty for repeated track limit infringements, however he did not lose the third position as Clairet and Callejas continued to swap paints and in lap 10, the Spaniard moved back into P4, but he too was given a five-second penalty for making contact with Clairet.

Up front, Magnus took a comfortable win, six seconds clear of Coronel, with Young third and Clairet fourth, while Callejas dropped to sixth behind Montenegro.  

Le Castellet – Qualifying Race

1. Gilles Magnus (Team Belgium, Audi RS 3 LMS), 13 laps

2. Tom Coronel (Team Netherlands, Audi RS 3 LMS), 6.212

3. Jack Young (Team Ireland, Honda Civic Type R), 13.738

4. Teddy Clairet (Team France, Peugeot 308), 16.050

5. Ignacio Montenegro (Team Argentina, Honda Civic Type R), 17.762

Picture: FIA Motorsport Games