At a glance
- Moritz Löhner won the first FIA Esports European Hill Climb Cup in Luxembourg on 11 October 2026, beating Sami Joe Abi Nakhle in the single-run final.
- Abi Nakhle received two five-second penalties in the decider after setting the virtual course record in his semi-final. Alessandro Ottaviani finished third.
- The FIA reports more than 7,000 classified participants from 87 countries in online qualifying, which selected eight drivers for the live final.
Moritz Löhner took the inaugural FIA Esports European Hill Climb Cup title after a knockout campaign that ended against course-record setter Sami Joe Abi Nakhle. The German won their one-run showdown in Luxembourg, where the Lebanese finalist incurred two five-second penalties.
The result brought Löhner back to the top of a competition podium after what he described as a couple of years without a win. According to the FIA’s event report, published on 21 October, ACL Sport organised the eight-driver final at the E-Motion sim-racing centre.
Three rounds to the title
Löhner’s path began with a 2–1 quarter-final victory over Romania’s Filip Floristeanu. He then swept Finland’s Turkka Häkkinen 3–0 in their semi-final to reach the title decider.
Abi Nakhle arrived by a different route. He beat Mihai-Alexandru 3–0 in the quarter-finals before overcoming Italy’s Ottaviani 2–1. His semi-final also produced the course record, giving him a distinction from the weekend despite missing out on the championship.
Both the quarter-finals and semi-finals were contested over three runs. The final reduced the contest to a single run, which Löhner won for a recorded score of 1–0. Abi Nakhle’s two penalties added ten seconds, although the FIA report does not supply the final times or winning margin.
Ottaviani completed the podium by beating Häkkinen 1–0 in the one-off third-place play-off. The Italian therefore recovered from his semi-final defeat to claim the remaining podium place.
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Glasbachrennen revealed on Saturday
The finalists competed on RaceRoom using a virtual recreation of Germany’s 5.5km Glasbachrennen course. The layout was revealed only on Saturday morning, before Sunday’s knockout stages.
The challenge combined similar-looking corners and a tight chicane with five-second penalties for barrier contact. The selected car was the BMW 134, with its 3.4-litre Judd V8. In the final, the penalty system featured directly in the result through Abi Nakhle’s two sanctions.
Online qualifying selected the eight finalists
The live knockout followed a free online qualification phase. The official competition website advertised the RaceRoom window from 20 August to 7 September, with the fastest eight earning places at the Luxembourg final.
The FIA’s subsequent participation figure—more than 7,000 classified drivers across 87 countries—covers that online phase rather than the live event. The competition launched in 2026 as part of the federation’s expansion into additional esports disciplines. Its first edition ended with Löhner holding the title, Abi Nakhle taking second and the course record, and Ottaviani securing third.
Image credit: Representative image. · Source: traxion.gg · Modifications: Optimized to WebP; earlier source editing history is unverified · Image source
