Germany Wins First Qualifying Race

Germany took a dominant victory in the first GT Cup qualifying race for the FIA Motorsport Games at Circuit Paul Ricard.

The No. 20 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, driven by Valentin Pierburg and Fabian Schiller, converted pole position to victory by a comfortable margin over France.

Pierburg started the race aboard the SPS Automotive Performance-operated car, before Schiller took over halfway through the hour-long contest to take it to the checkered flag.

The French duo of Eric Debard and Simon Gachet started the race from second position, but Debard dropped to third at the start when United Kingdom driver Ian Loggie jumped down the inside into the first corner.

The two drivers remained close throughout the first half of the race before both cars pitted, with Loggie handing over to Sam Neary and Gachet taking over from Debard.

Neary, who stands in for Chris Froggatt, came under pressure from Gachet before the Frenchman took the Akkodis ASP-run No. 81 Mercedes back into second through turns one and two with under half an hour to go.

Poland finished fourth thanks to a strong recovery drive from Karol Basz, who took the No. 777 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II back into contention in the second half of the race to bounce back after messy opening stint.

Basz’ co-driver Marcin Jedlinski spun in the opening minutes of the race and also made contact with the Hong Kong Honda NSX GT3 Evo driven by Paul Ip.

However, the Polish duo would finish fourth courtesy of a late pass on Puerto Rico driver Victor Manuel Gomez Donato IV by Basz.

Donato and Francesco Piovanetti finished fifth, ahead of Brazil, Switzerland, Australia and Lithuania.

The top ten was rounded out by Ukraine.

The second qualifying race for the GT Cup takes place Saturday at 11:10 a.m. CEST (5 a.m. ET).