History has been made at the Vallelunga Autodrom, with Team Australia winning its first ever FIA Motorsport Games gold medal in the Digital Cup component of the multi-discipline event.

Beating more than 30 competitors from around the world, Australia’s Cody Nikola Latkovski has saluted on the global stage in the Esports category, beating some highly fancied competitors on his way to the impressive feat.

The West Australian sailed through the qualifying process, starting from second on the grid and thanks to a bold four stop strategy, the 19-year-old managed to win gold for his country.

“Wow, I’m just lost for words at the moment – I’m happy I could get gold for Australia,” Latkovski said.

“This is just amazing, I couldn’t be happier. I can’t believe it, to get this great achievement for Australia, it’s just outstanding, I couldn’t have hoped to go better.”

Players competed on the popular Gran Turismo platform, with competitors racing on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in the grand final event. The 12 grand finalists steered identical Red Bull X2019 prototypes in the 19 lap race.

Latkovski, the FIA-certified Gran Turismo World Championships regular had a race to remember, and came away with a win despite a spin earlier in proceedings.

Australia’s first gold medal was just the second handed out at the FIA Motorsport Games, with the remainder to be awarded tomorrow.

Australia is in action in two other categories, with Luis Leeds to start tomorrow’s Formula 4 race in eighth, while father-son duo Stephen and Brenton Grove will start the second GT race from fourth to determine the grid for the feature GT race Sunday afternoon at Vallelunga, near Rome in Italy.

Read more about how Saturday unfolded for all of Australia’s competitors here.