The third year of the FIA-certified Gran Turismo World Championships will be concluded this weekend with both the Manufacturer Series and Nations Cup finals.
What is normally a series of in-person events in different cities across the world building up to a World Final, has been changed in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
After one World Tour event, held in Sydney in February, the rest of the qualifying events before this weekend’s finals were all done remotely.
The first of the FIA-certified World Finals will take place on Saturday, namely the Manufacturer Series.
Three stages of online events, run from April to August, decided not only which gamers made the final but which manufacturers did as well.
At the start players chose which manufacturer they wanted to represent throughout the competition, with the finals using each marque’s Group 3 car, which is equivalent to an FIA GT3 car.
During the online events the players and manufacturers which performed the best made it through to Saturday’s final, with Toyota and Mazda (above) guaranteed representation on the grid as the official partners of both championships.
Subaru appears to have one of the strongest driver line-ups, with 2019 Gran Turismo World Champion Mikail Hizal being joined by the Nations Cup winner in the Sydney World Tour event, Takuma Miyazono, along with Daniel Solis.
Honda’s three-driver team includes the 2018 Gran Turismo World Champion Igor Fraga, who is also known as a Red Bull F1 junior competing in real-life Formula 3.
However the Manufacturers Series winner in Sydney was BMW with Nicolas Rubilar, Randall Haywood and Williams Esports’ Coque Lopez all helping to win that World Tour event.
That smile says it all 😄
@Williams_Coque gives it some beans after crossing the line to secure #FIAGTC Manufacturer Series glory for @BMWMotorsport in Sydney pic.twitter.com/XRB0LRpujd
— Gran Turismo (@thegranturismo) February 15, 2020
In Sydney each of the three drivers for each manufacturer completed a stint with drivers swapping over by physically getting out of the sim rig to let their team-mate in while the car was in the pits.
For the final though, one driver from each team will complete one of three races, with the final race offering up double points.
The manufacturer that scores the most points across all three races will be crowned the champion along with the three drivers that represented them.
In Sunday’s Nations’ Cup final the drivers race on an individual basis. Neither of the previous two winners is taking part.
What an epic tussle for the race win between Miyazono and Kokubun 👀 #GTSport #FIAGTC
— Gran Turismo (@thegranturismo) December 6, 2020
The finalists had to make their way through a series of online events, with the best going through to the online regional finals.
The top eight from Europe, Middle East and Africa made it through to Sunday’s final, with the top four from the Americas and the top three from Asia and Oceania also qualifying.
Miyazono, the Nations Cup winner in the Sydney World Tour, qualified as the 16 driver for the final by virtue of winning that event.
JUST. WOW. 😱
What a sensational end to the #FIAGTC Nations Cup in Sydney! pic.twitter.com/UtYN0upmiu
— Gran Turismo (@thegranturismo) February 16, 2020
There he bested Aussie Cody Nikola Latkovski – the FIA Motorsport Games gold medallist – by just 0.032s in a 30-lap final race.
As in the manufacturers’ contest, the individual final will feature three races with a double-points final round, but the cars each driver will be racing with are quite varied.
Race one will be undertaken in the new Toyota GR Yaris (below) at Fuji International Speedway. The second event will involve the Porsche 911 RSR racing car around the Tokyo Expressway circuit in the rain.
Finally, the double-points race will be a 10-lap sprint at Le Mans with the Mazda RX-Vision GT3 Concept sports car.
The three Manufacturer Series winners and the Nations Cup champion will all be honoured in the FIA Prize-Giving Gala, as the previous Gran Turismo World champions have been.
Watch all of the action from the Gran Turismo World Final on The Race’s YouTube page. Click HERE for the Manufacturers’ Final, click HERE for the Nations Cup decider or watch both races below.
Manufacturer Series
Nations Cup
