Gilles Magnus took a lights-to-flag win in the second race of the FIA Motorsport Games’ Touring Car Cup at Vallelunga, as Klim Gavrilov secured the outright gold medal with second in a safety car-affected race.
The start of the race had to be delayed when Team USA’s Mason Filippi lost control of his Hyundai on the warm-up lap, damaging his front-end and ending up stuck in the gravel.
When the race did get underway several minutes later, Belgium’s Magnus lead away, with Gavrilov settling into second and Team Slovakia’s Mat’o Homola in third, after The Netherlands’ Tom Coronel, who had started in third, made a poor start.
There was just one lap of racing before the safety car had to be deployed when Team Germany’s Luca Engstler, starting from the back, made contact with the stalled Audi of Team Italy’s Enrico Bettera, eliminating both drivers and ripping the right-rear wheel off Engstler’s Hyundai.
Racing resumed on lap five and another stoppage was nearly required when New Zealand’s Faine Kahia went off on the run up to Turn 7, his Audi skating across the grass on the run up to the inside of the hairpin. The Kiwi had been running in fourth but the off ended his race.
Coronel staged a comeback attempt at the same time, impressively passing Homola around the outside for third at the final turn before attacking Gavrilov for second on the following lap.
Things almost came to a head on the last lap, which became a one-lap shootout when Zhendong Zhang went off late in the race and caused another safety car period.
Coronel made contact with the rear of Gavrilov’s Audi whilst trying to take second, but the Dutchman couldn’t find a way past and had to settle for third, giving Gavrilov the overall gold medal.
Coronel completed the podium, whilst the UK’s Rory Butcher was fourth in his MG, impressively coming through from tenth on the grid and taking fourth at the last corner, with Homola finishing in fifth.
France’s John Filippi was sixth in his CUPRA, ahead of Sweden’s Jessica Bäckman in seventh, the latter passing Hong Kong’s Jim Ka To for the position on the last lap with contact.
That also allowed Lithuania’s Julius Adomavicius to take eighth, with Jim finishing ninth in his Honda and Latvia’s Valters Zviedris completing the top ten.
The results meant Gavrilov claimed gold with 47 points, followed by Magnus (45), Homola (29), J Filippi (22), Coronel (20), Bäckman (15), Butcher (13) and Kouril (11).
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS |  |
Team Belgium | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 31:06.800 | 1:43.163 | 1 |
| 2 | 14 | Klim GAVRILOV |  |
Team Russia | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 2.081 | 1:43.113 | 2 |
| 3 | 33 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Team Netherlands | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 2.181 | 1:43.627 | 3 |
| 4 | 6 | Rory BUTCHER |  |
Team United Kingdom | MG6 TCR | 15 | 2.317 | 1:44.244 | 10 |
| 5 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
Team Slovakia | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 15 | 2.566 | 1:43.526 | 4 |
| 6 | 27 | John FILIPPI |  |
Team France | CUPRA TCR | 15 | 2.972 | 1:44.313 | 7 |
| 7 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN |  |
Team Sweden | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 15 | 4.160 | 1:44.733 | 6 |
| 8 | 5 | Julius ADOMAVICIUS |  |
Team Lithuania | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 15 | 6.286 | 1:45.165 | 16 |
| 9 | 88 | JIM Ka To |  |
Team Hong Kong | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 7.387 | 1:46.178 | 8 |
| 10 | 25 | Valters ZVIEDRIS |  |
Team Latvia | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 8.773 | 1:45.338 | 17 |
| 11 | 15 | Norbert KISS |  |
Team Hungary | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 15 | 8.869 | 1:45.715 | 13 |
| 12 | 10 | Kristian Moe SÆTHEREN |  |
Team Norway | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 15 | 9.075 | 1:45.404 | 14 |
| 13 | 11 | Gonzalo DE ANDRES Martin |  |
Team Spain | Peugeot 308 TCR | 15 | 10.137 | 1:45.344 | 20 |
| 14 | 35 | Salem ALNUSIF |  |
Team Kuwait | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 11.170 | 1:45.416 | 18 |
| 15 | 59 | Dušan KOURIL JR |  |
Team Czech Republic | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | + 1 LAP | 1:44.770 | 12 |
| 16 | 18 | Zhendong ZHANG |  |
Team China | MG6 TCR | 11 | + 4 LAPS | 1:45.593 | 15 |
| R | 55 | Faine KAHIA |  |
Team New Zealand | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | DNF | 2:38.392 | 5 |
| R | 69 | Enrico BETTERA |  |
Team Italy | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 9 |
| R | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER |  |
Team Germany | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 19 |
| NS | 21 | Mason FILIPPI |  |
Team USA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 11 |