Team UK secured silver in the GT category at the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games on Saturday, as the British pair of Chris Froggatt and James Cottingham received a penalty in the closing laps of the race that denied them gold.
The duo qualified in second place but took the lead at the start of the hour-long qualifying race, beating the German team of Finn Wiebelhaus and Hubert Haupt, to secure the pole position for the main race on Saturday.
Cottingham, who started the race in Team UK’s Ferrari 296 GT3, held first place into the opening corner but couldn’t cover the inside into Turn 2, losing the position to the German team’s Haupt.
The pair had a nearly five-second gap to the field by the end of the third lap though, as battling behind allowed the front two to pull clear.
Further back there was drama for China and France, as the pair made contact in Turn 1. France would go wide while China spun onto the inside of the circuit, both needing visits to the pits before continuing.
Cottingham followed Haupt for the remainder of the stint, sitting less than a second behind, and then followed the German into the pits for the driver swap as soon as the pit window opened. A bad stop for Team UK however saw the duo fall from the bumper of Germany’s Mercedes AMG GT3 to 3.3s behind.
Froggatt closed the gap to Team Germany, now with Wiebelhaus behind the wheel, to 1.5s within a couple of laps, and with 26 minutes left on the clock was right on the tail of the Mercedes once more.
With 13 minutes to go Wiebelhaus would be handed a five-second penalty for track limits, meaning that all Froggatt would have to do would be to stay close behind on the road. But on the next lap he launched an audacious move up the inside of Turn 5 – making contact with the Mercedes on the way through.
That would all be for naught as, with eight minutes remaining, Team UK would be handed a 10-second penalty for track limits.
The remainder of the race played out much the same as the start but with the roles reversed, as Team Germany followed Team UK within a second until the chequered flag.
With the UK ultimately being demoted to silver, this would promote Germany to gold, with Switzerland pair Yannick Mettler and Dexter Muller taking bronze in their Mercedes, and with it their first medal in the Games of their three entrances.
Elsewhere, the father and daughter pairing of Ernie and Anna Graham took silver in the Historic Rally Gravel event on Friday in their Ford Escort RS, while brothers Jack and Andy O'Neill, along with Rhianna Purcocks, moved up 13 positions from qualifying to take the bronze medal in Karting Endurance.
