Marco Butti was victorious in the FIA Motorsport Games Touring Car Cup’s Final Race at Valencia and won the gold medal for Italy.
At the wheel of his Honda Civic FL5 run by GOAT Racing, Butti recovered from P9 on the grid and outpaced his teammate and pole sitter Ignacio Montenegro during the final laps of the race, when all drivers were struggling to stay on a wet track with slick tyres. Montenegro took the silver medal for Argentina, while bronze went to Raphael Reis and Brazil after Spain’s Eric Gené and France’s Aurélien Comte were hit by penalties.
The race started under the threat of rain, with the track declared wet; René Kircher pulled into the pits at the end of the formation lap with an engine issue. Montenegro made good use of the pole and led the field, while Gené defended the second place from Adam Kout who had jumped ahead of Reis. Kout overtook Gené, but then their cars made contact, with Kout forced to run wide and dropping to sixth. Butti began to elbow his way up passing René Povlsen, Kout and Comte, and moving into P4.
The rain came during the third lap, while Jenson Brickley served a drive through for a grid infringement. Butti kept on climbing and overtook both Reis and Gené in lap 5, taking second place. The Italian’s gap from the leader Montenegro was 4.4 seconds at the end of lap 6 but it began to shrink. In lap 7, Gené spun and dropped from third to sixth behind the fighting trio of Reis, Comte and Kout. The track became more slippery, and Montenegro’s advantage melted quickly: 3.6 in lap 8, 2.9 in lap 9, 1.9 in lap 10. At the beginning of lap 12, Butti was glued to the tail of Montenegro’s car and one lap later he muscled his way into the lead as their cars made contact. In lap 14, Comte made a mistake, and Kout passed him for fourth, but then the Czech spun after being hit by the French driver who also managed to pass Reis for third.
Up front, Butti pulled away and took the chequered flag 6.2 seconds before Montenegro, with Comte in third position. However, the Frenchman was handed a 20-second penalty for the incident with Kout and dropped to seventh, while Gené, who had beaten Reis in final dash to the line, was promoted to third, but shortly after the podium ceremony, the young Spaniard was given a ten-second penalty for hitting Kout on lap 1, and his teammate Reis inherited the bronze medal.
Marco Butti (gold medal): “It’s a great feeling, especially because yesterday had been probably the most difficult day in my racing career. I had no expectations for today, but I made the rain dance hoping to have a wet race… For sure I came here prepared, after the experience to race in similar conditions last week in China. But the others had a better knowledge of the track than myself, so I think the field was very levelled. I have grown up considerably this season as a driver, because racing in the World Tour against the superstars of Touring Cars made me gain a lot of experience. I’m so happy for this gold medal and I wish to thank GOAT Racing and JAS Motorsport for the great car they have given me today”.
Ignacio Montenegro (silver medal): “It was a very difficult race. I tried my best to keep Marco behind, but he had a better pace than mine, so it was not possible to defend the lead. He was racing in the same conditions in the World Tour in China, and he knew better how to handle this situation. All in all, I can be happy with myself, because I think we did a good job over the whole weekend. After the pole position and the victory in the Qualifying Race, obviously I wanted to win the gold, but silver is not too bad.”
Raphael Reis (bronze medal): “A little bit of luck has repaid me of the troubles in both races. It was a weekend full of ups and downs. I always showed a pace good enough to fight for the top places, but a bad start in the Qualifying Race put me in a position to be caught in the melee of the first lap. I was able to recover and finish fourth, which paved the way to aim for a better result in the Final Race. Eventually the two drivers who finished before me made mistakes and received penalties and I was handed the bronze medal, which makes me really proud. Is great to race in Europe representing my Country in this great event and go back home with a medal!”
Valencia – Final Race
Picture: FIA Motorsport Games
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