Day Three at the FIA Motorsport Games
DIGITAL CUP
Team UK’s James Baldwin missed out on a third-place finish and FIA Motorsport Games bronze medal by just three-tenths of a seconds in the Digital Cup Grand Final at the Centro Congressi di Vallelunga.
James, who won the World’s Fastest Gamer competition in California earlier this week, qualified fourth overall before finishing third in his group in the semi-final.
Starting Saturday night’s Grand Final in ninth position, James played an effective tyre strategy and climbed the field to sit in fifth for most of the race. With plenty of drama at the front of the field James took advantage of a mistake by German competitor Mikail Hizal to sail into fourth position with just a few laps remaining.
James began to close in on Italian competitor Stefano Conte as the chequered flag waved, awarding Australia’s Cody Nikola Latkovski with the gold medal.
GT CUP
Chris Froggatt and Flick Haigh put in an incredible drive in challenging conditions to finish fourth overall in the opening FIA Motorsport Games GT Cup race.
The British pairing started 17th on the grid and overcame an incident-filled race as they charged through the pack to claim a spot in the top five.
KARTING SLALOM
Fourteen-year-old Samuel Shaw and Jessica Edgar grappled with an unknown event format and electric karts in the Karting Slalom. The British Kart Championship pairing missed out on a spot in the Final but will return to join Team UK in Sunday evening’s closing ceremony.
TOURING CUP
Team UK’s Rory Butcher suffered technical issues in the opening FIA Motorsport Games Touring Cup race to finish in a heartbreaking 16th place.
After a strong performance in this morning’s qualifying session, the British Touring Car Championship star started the opening race from third position but dropped back through the field in the opening few laps.
Rory is working with the British manufacturer MG to develop the new MG6 XPower TCR. The FIA Motorsport Games is the car’s motorsport debut outside of China after being homologated just days before the competition.