Team Australia opens FIA Motorsport Games campaign

Team Australia has commenced its FIA Motorsport Games foray and recorded a number of solid results across all categories in Friday in France.

Qualifying races and practice sessions were all held at Circuit Paul Ricard last night and the Australians impressed in their first chance to get down to business in the worldwide event.

The father and son combination of Brenton and Stephen Grove are racing in the GT Cup where they hope to defend the bronze medal they scored in the 2019 event.

The pair crossed the line in P8 after the first of two tough qualifying races, but were relegated to 10th after receiving a penalty for a driving infringement.

Brenton and Stephen Grove raced hard on day one of the FIA Motorsport Games in France. Photo: SRO – FIA Motorsport Games

Another qualifying race will be held on Saturday morning before the feature race is held in the afternoon.

Despite finding some early trouble, Brenton Grove was not concerned after gaining a clearer understanding ahead of tonight’s race.

“We probably didn’t have the cleanest race we would have liked, but there were some positive elements as well,” Brenton said.

“The main race is what we are focusing on and we have a nice tyre strategy going into that race, so fingers crossed we can be in a good starting position, stay out of the carnage and pick our way through the field.”

Young gun Costa Toparis continued to show promise on board a Formula 4 car after getting two practice sessions under his belt.

After recording a P11 finish in the opening session, Toparis made some big gains in the afternoon to move up five positions to P6.

Costa Toparis showed some promising pace in the Formula 4 discipline at Circuit Paul Ricard. Photo: SRO – FIA Motorsport Games

It was an impressive performance effort given the Aussie teenager is making his debut at a track where many of his competitors have previous experience, but Toparis said there is still a lot to learn.

“For me the track is so long and so hard to learn, so to get up into P6 in two sessions is good,” Toparis said.

“There’s still lots of room to improve and I’ll work overnight to go up further and gain some more lap time. The balance is good, hopefully we can do good for the rest of the weekend.”

Aussie Philippa Boquida impressed in the Esports field, finishing her qualifying race in the top three.

Despite starting from P3 on the grid and staying within touching distance of the leaders, Boquida said she has identified some key areas of improvement.

Philippa Boquida qualified for the semi-final in the Esports discipline. Photo: SRO – FIA Motorsport Games

“It was a bit tough, I made a bit of a mistake with the setup of the tyre pressures. There was not a lot of grip on the back and I had so much tyre wear throughout the race,” Boquida said.

“The pace was good enough to stay in P3 which puts me in an ok position for the semi-finals.”

In the Karting Sprint Junior class, Australian youngster Peter Bouzinelos hill start the heats in P5 after setting a competitive time despite struggling earlier in the day.

Despite showing some practice pace, Aiva Anagnostiadis had a challenging qualifying in the Karting Sprint Senior category.

Anagnostiadis was 15th in her qualifying session, but hopes to make some inroads when racing begins on Saturday.

Australia’s Touring Car competitor Aaron Cameron completed a single practice session under the setting sun and finished 15th.

But Cameron said he does not feel his time was a representative one of his overall pace having had some laps deleted for exceeding track limits, while he also experienced some wild moments.

“It was grouse to finally get the first few laps in and I had a ball in the Peugeot,” Cameron said.

“I’ve got to mainly focus on getting my laps actually counted… we’ll just keep working at and put it together.

“In turns one and two, there’s a lot of kerb usage. I swear I nearly rolled in that session, so I got to find a way to hit that turn two kerb without ending on my lid.”

Team Australia GT Sprint driver, Matt Campbell, won’t be in action in his Porsche until Sunday, with the class taking place as a one-day shootout, including practice, qualifying and the one-hour long

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