Track action is now fully underway at the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games after the GT contenders completed Free Practice 1 at Circuit Ricardo Tormo this morning.
The 80-minute session gave the category’s hopefuls a chance to sample the 4km track, though an 08:30 CEST start ensured that the surface was slick when the.green flag flew. The Qatari Porsche was the first car out with Ibrahim Al Abdulghani at the wheel, while Chris Froggatt was first to break the two-minute barrier aboard the Great Britain Ferrari.
There was significant progress thereafter, with the benchmark lap whittled down to the mid 1m30s by the time the chequered flag was displayed. This was aided by climbing track temperatures, which allowed drivers to take full advantage of their Pirelli rubber.
Team China’s Audi led the way thanks to a late 1m35.109s from Yaqi Zhang. He edged Hubert Haupt (Germany), who posted a 1m35.251s aboard his Mercedes-AMG, with the Ukrainian Audi completing the top three thanks to Ivan Pelkin. Roughly half a second covered the top seven, which also featured Switzerland, Spain, the Great Britain and Lithuania.
The session ran largely uninterrupted, save for a brief red flag on the hour mark when the Team Japan Ferrari stopped at Turn 12. There was no obvious damage to the car, which was able to restart and return to the pits under its own power. The GT contenders will be back on-track at 12:30 CEST for a second 80-minute Free Practice session.