Montenegro beats Gené in Qualifying Race despite a penalty
Montenegro beats Gené in Qualifying Race despite a penalty
Despite a five-second penalty, Argentina’s Ignacio Montenegro converted the pole position into an authoritative victory in the FIA Motorsport Games Touring Car Cup’s Qualifying Race at Valencia, securing another pole for the Final Race that will start Sunday at 09:25 (CEST) on the distance of 30 minutes plus one lap.
Eric Gené of Team España finished a brilliant second after making an outstanding start, while Czechia’s Adam Kout benefitted from the other competitors’ troubles to complete a consistent drive to third position.
Montenegro sprinted from the pole and led into T1, while Gené and Aurélien Comte from P3 and P4 moved ahead of Raphael Reis who had taken a slow start. Marco Butti, instead, was a fast starter from ninth on the grid and during the opening lap he was able to pass René Kircher for sixth, with Kout following him through into P7. Zekai Özen’s Audi was the first casualty and retired with transmission problems.
Before the first lap was completed, Jenson Brickley attempted an overtaking move on Reis but crashed into the Brazilian’s car. Reis limped back to the pits with damage to the back of his CUPRA and rejoined without losing a lap. Brickley continued, but his Leon had serious damage at the front, and so he retired at the end of lap 3.
Montenegro pulled away, while Gené tried to keep Comte at bay. In lap 5, Megan Tomlinson went off at T3 and the safety car was deployed; while the stranded Audi of the Canadian girl was recovered, Race Control communicated a 5-second penalty to Montenegro for jump-start.
Racing resumed in lap 7, with Comte and Butti involved in a thrilling battle for the third position. In lap 10, Kircher’s Honda stopped at the end of the pit straight in a cloud of smoke. As the Comte-Butti fight went on, both drivers exceeded track limits and had to serve drive-through penalties, dropping to seventh and eighth. That was not the end of it for Butti, who was eventually shown the black flag for further infringements.
Up front, Montenegro was pushing to the limits trying to put more than five seconds between him and Gené, while Reis had recovered after the stop and was chasing Kout who had been promoted to third thanks to the penalties to Comte and Butti.
At the beginning of the last lap, Montenegro had stretched his lead to 4.6 seconds and kept on pushing so that under the chequered flag, Gené was 5.5 seconds behind.
Ignacio Montenegro (1st): “We won, but I’m not completely happy, because I’m a driver who aims for perfection and so I’m disappointed by my mistake at the start that cost me the penalty. I need to work on this and avoid this from happening again. My race was flat-out for all the thirty minutes, everywhere, trying to take care of the tyres and respect the track limits. We have a very good car and eventually all this made me capable of erasing the five-second penalty and take the victory.”
Eric Gené (2nd): “I’m over the moon! It was a great race! There are several strong drivers in this race, but we have been competitive from the start to the end. I have made a very good start and was able to overtake my teammate Reis before the first turn. This put me in the position to follow Montenegro, running at a good rhythm and securing the second position at the start of the Final Race.”
Adam Kout (3rd): “I’m very happy with this result. The speed of my car was not so good compared to the guys at the front, but my pace was consistent. I enjoyed a good battle with Kircher until he had bad luck and retired. After that, I just focused on managing the tyres and I was able to maintain a small margin ahead of Reis until the end.”
Raphael Reis (4th): “Considering what had happened during the first lap, to finish fourth was a great result. But obviously I’m disappointed, because we have a great car, and I expected much more. My race was nearly over after the incident, but the safety car gave me the opportunity to rejoin the field, and I need to thank the team for being so efficient in repairing the damage and sending me back on track.”
Valencia – Qualifying Race
- Ignacio Montenegro (Argentina, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 15 laps
- Eric Gené (Spain, CUPRA Leon VZ), 0.558
- Adam Kout (Czechia, Hyundai i30 N), 9.789
Picture: FIA Motorsport Games
