Karting Endurance: Belgium earns gold medal in thrilling four-hour race

Karting Endurance: Belgium earns gold medal in thrilling four-hour race

Team Belgium has earned the second gold medal of the FIA Motorsport Games following a hard-earned victory in the four-hour Karting Endurance race, which featured as part of the unique global multidisciplinary event for the first time.

The nation’s drivers, Maxime Dron, Jeremy Peclers, Sita Vannmeert, and Antione Morlet pulled off a stellar performance to climb the order from sixth on the grid to enter the medal-paying positions at the halfway mark. 

Team Belgium then pushed on to take the gold medal fight to then leaders, Team Spain, resulting in a yo-yo battle for the top spot before a mistake from the Spaniards finally allowed Belgium to pull out an unassailable advantage.  

Alvaro Bajo Robles, Alba Cano Ramirez, Jose Manuel Perez Aicart, and Ivan Velasco can still be very proud of bringing home the silver medal for Spain. The Czech Republic, meanwhile, moved up to third with a pass on Team UK with 27 minutes remaining, ensuring them the first Karting Endurance bronze medal ever awarded.

After qualifying third this morning, the United Kingdom squad of Jack O’Neil, Mike Philippou, Owen Jenman, and Rhianna Kay Purcocks were strong medal contenders, leading for a considerable time after the first round of pit stops. But a 10-second stop-go penalty for a pitstop infringement and subsequent exhaust issue, which forced a change of kart, dropped them down the order, and the team would miss out on fourth by 0.097s at the line.

Taking full advantage of Team UK’s woes was Team Georgia, with Mariam Davitidze, Mariam Tsiklauri, Nika Kobosnidze, and Archil Tsimakuridze finishing fourth, while Team Peru (Maria Jesus Esquivel, Harold Watson, Mark Harten, and Taylor Greendfield) completed the top six and of Team Slovakia.

The first all-female team to enter the FIA Motorsport Games, Team Portugal, finished eighth, with Poland, Malta, Israel, Chinese Taipei, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, and Uzbekistan finishing in order.

Finishing 16th, Team Bahamas put on a sensational show at their first-ever competitive event and chance to drive on a purpose-built kart circuit. Ramando Hudson, Christopher Bain, Jashai Burrrow, and Giselle Liriano can be extremely proud of completing 200 laps and improving their lap times by more than  seven seconds on Saturday alone, to set a best lap time within two seconds of the winners. 

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