For this last outing of the 2022 season, I went to the Paul Ricard circuit to attend the second edition of the FIA Motorsport Games.
More than 72 nations came from all over the world to defend their flags across 16 disciplines.
If the majority of the events took place on the site of the circuit, the rally stages took the neighboring roads of Sainte Baume and the Cross Car events took place on the gravel circuit of Veynes located 200 kilometers from the circuit.
For my part, I mainly followed the KCMG Formula 4 Cup, Touring Car Cup, GT Cup, GT Sprint Cup events.
I will spoil you without delay by giving you the results of these Olympic games of motor sports.
FIA Motorsport Games 2022 standings
1. Italy (3 gold medals and one silver)
2. France (3 gold medals)
3. Belgium (2 gold medals and 2 silver)
4. Netherlands (2 gold medals and 1 silver)
4. Germany (2 gold and 1 silver)
5. United Kingdom (1 gold and 1 bronze)
Gold medalists by discipline
GT: France (E. Debard and S. Gachet)
Endurance Karting: Belgium (M. Drion, J. Peclers, S. Vanmeert, A. Morlet)
Cross Car Junior: Netherlands (N. Ottink)
Cross Car Senior: France (D. Meat)
Drift: Latvia (K. Bluss)
Fanatec Esports: UK (J. Baldwin)
Rally2: France (M. Arzeno and R. Roche)
Historic Rally: Italy (Zippo and N. Arena)
Rally4: Italy (R. Dapra and L. Guglielmetti)
Formula 4: Italy (A.K. Antonelli)
Slalom Karting: Germany (S. Romberg and A. Spielberger)
Karting Sprint Junior: Peru (A. Cardenas)
Karting Sprint Senior: Belgium (E. Goldstein)
Touring Car: Netherlands (T. Coronel)
Auto Slalom: Germany (C. Schonborn and M. Hellberg)
GT Sprint: Australia (M Campbell)
The disciplines I followed
GT
The GT series (GT Cup and GT sprint) were dedicated for cars conforming to GT3 regulations
GT Cup
GT cup format was cater for two-driver, identical to the SRO GT World Challenge championships.
13 nations applied for medals
Austria (Porsche 911 GT3 R), Spain (Mercedes AMG GT3), Germany (Mercedes AMG GT3), Hong Kong (Honda NSX GT3 EVO), Brazil (Mercedes AMG GT3), Ukraine (Aston Martin Vantage GT3), Puerto Rico (Ferrari 488 GT3), Switzerland (Mercedes AMG GT3), Chinese Taipei (Ferrari 488 GT3), Lithuania (Audi R8 LMS GT3) France (Mercedes AMG GT3), United Kingdom (Mercedes AMG GT3) and Poland (Audi R8 LMS GT3).
GT Cup activities kicked off on Friday with two free practice sessions and the first one-hour qualifying race.
A second qualifying race was scheduled for Saturday morning, setting the grid for the decisive one-hour race for the awarding of medals.
After the qualifying sessions, the starting grid saw Germany in the front row ahead of France.
The victory went to France (E. Debard / S. Gachet) ahead of Germany (V. Pierburg / F. Schiller) the podium was completed by the United Kingdom (I. Loggie / S. Neary).
GT Sprint
GT Sprint was open to one driver per nation with unrestricted FIA driver grading.
The competition played out over two 30-minutes practices before a 20-minutes qualifying session that set the grid for the single 60-minute sprint race.
13 nations were represented in this category
Australia (Porsche 911 GT3 R), Morroco (McLaren 720S GT3), Germany (Mercedes AMG GT3), Spain (Mercedes AMG GT3), Hong Kong (Honda NSX GT3 EVO ), Belgium (Audi R8 LMS GT3), Brazil (Mercedes AMG GT3), Türkiye (Porsche 911 GT3 R), Switzerland (Mercedes AMG GT3), Italy (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO), Chinese Taipei (Ferrari 488 GT3), Lithuania (Audi R8 LMS GT3 and France (Mercedes AMG GT3).
The starting grid was composed as follows Belgium, Australia in the front row followed by Germany and Türkiye.
Victory went to Australia (M. Campbell) who led the race from start to finish followed closely by Italy (M. Bortolotti).
Belgium (D. Vanthoor) finished on the last step of the podium.
Touring Car
For the Touring Car the homologated vehicles were the TCR.
The format of the event included two free practices of 30 minutes, a qualifying of 30 minutes which gave the starting grid for the qualifying race of 25 minutes plus one lap.
The latter made it possible to establish the grid for the main race of 30 minutes plus one lap.
18 nations were present on the entry list.
The qualifying race would establish a composite starting grid for the front row of Belgium ahead of the Netherlands
Unfortunately for Belgium and its driver G. Magnus, who had dominated all the qualifying sessions, this one dropped out on the first lap, leaving the way open to the experienced T. Coronel for the Netherlands.
The podium was completed by Spain (I. Callejas Gomez) and Ireland (J. Young).
Formula 4
Vehicles Single Spec / FIA F4 KC - MG 01
Format, two 45-minute free practices sessions , one qualifying session 25 minutes, one qualifying race 20 minutes and the main race of 30 minutes
24 nations were present on the entry list.
These young racers will not only be chasing medals at Circuit Paul Ricard next week, chassis supplier KCMG will provide a €10.000 prize fund for the race winner.
Italy (A. Antonelli) and Portugal (M. Espirito Santo) formed the front row on the grid.
On arrival the two protagonists found themselves in the same position followed for the podium by Spain (B. del Pino).
Some other disciplines seen
Slalom Karting
Slalom Auto
Rallye
Rallye Historic
This completes the 2022 season for RSC.
I hope to see you again in 2023 for new adventures.
Based on FIA Motorsport Games press report.