Preview: FIA Motorsport Games at Circuit Paul Ricard

The FIA Motorsport Games return three years after the inaugural edition at Vallelunga. The event that was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, will be run this weekend in Southern France, at Circuit Paul Ricard.

One of its main features is the Touring Car race reserved for TCR-spec cars that has attracted a competitive field.

After one 30-minute Free Practice session on Friday (16:50), action will continue on Saturday with the second Free Practice (12:20) and a 30-minute Qualifying at 18:05; Sunday will be the race day with the Qualification Race of 25 minutes plus one lap at 11:30 and the Main Race of 30 minutes plus one lap at 14:30.

The entry list numbers several TCR stars, such as the freshly-crowned TCR UK champion Chris Smiley, TCR Europe race winner Jack Young, former TCR Asia champion Andy Yan from Hong Kong and Argentina's young gun Ignacio Montenegro; they will all be at the wheel of Honda Civic Type R cars.

The Audi patrol is equally strong and includes Belgium's WTCR regular and silver medal in the 2019 Motorsport Games Gilles Magnus, TCR Europe vice-champion Tom Coronel, Andreas Bäckman third classified in TCR Scandinavia and Canada's Travis Hill.

At the wheel of CUPRA Leon Competición cars are TCR Europe race winner and TCR Spain points leader Isidro Callejas, Brazil's Raphael Reis who finished third in TCR South America in 2021 and 2022 and Gabriel Lusquiños who represents Switzerland.

The field is completed by two Peugeot 308 cars for Aaron Cameron and Teddy Clairet, race winners in TCR Australia and TCR Europe respectively.

Entry list

2 - Team Switzerland, Gabriel Lusquiños (CUPRA Leon Competición, Volcano Motorsport)

3 - Team Hong Kong, Andy Yan Cheuk Wai (Honda Civic Type R, ALM Motorsport)

16 - Team Belgium, Gilles Magnus (Audi RS 3 LMS, Comtoyou Racing)

17 - Team Canada, Travis Hill (Audi RS 3 LMS, Comtoyou Racing)

18 - Team Australia, Aaron Cameron (Peugeot 308, Team Clairet Sport)

19 - Team Sweden, Andreas Bäckman (Audi RS 3 LMS, Comtoyou Racing)

20 - Team France, Teddy Clairet (Peugeot 308, Team Clairet Sport)

21 - Team Latvia, Valters Zviedris (Audi RS 3 LMS, LV Racing)

22 - Team Great Britain, Chris Smiley (Honda Civic Type R, Restart Racing)

23 - Team Norway, Didrik Esbjug (Honda Civic Type R, Esbjug Motorsport)

26 - Team Spain, Isidro Callejas (CUPRA Leon Competición, Volcano Motorsport)

29 - Team Argentina, Ignacio Montenegro (Honda Civic Type R, ALM Motorsport)

30 - Team Ukraine, Pavlo Chabanov (Audi RS 3 LMS, Volcano Motorsport)

33 - Team Italy, Giacomo Ghermandi (CUPRA Leon Competición, LEMA Racing)

62 - Team Ireland, Jack Young (Honda Civic Type R, ALM Motorsport)

77 - Team Brazil, Raphael Reis (CUPRA Leon Competición, Volcano Motorsport)

101 - Team Venezuela, Sergio López (Audi RS 3 LMS, RC2 Junior Team)

133 - Team Netherlands, Tom Coronel (Audi RS 3 LMS, Comtoyou Racing)

Picture: Grigoriy Golyshev