Gaming

Williams driver Gallo wins inaugural Olympic Virtual Series

by Nathan Quinn
4 min read

After a global time trial event on Gran Turismo Sport to find the 16 fastest drivers and then a three-race event in the inaugural Olympic Virtual Series, Italian Valerio Gallo scored the most points and was crowned the champion.

To an extent his win went against expectations as France’s Baptiste Beauvois won both of the first two races but was unlucky in the double-points final race and lost the top spot in the championship.

The Gran Turismo Sport-based competition was run in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee and the FIA. Of the five events in the Olympic Virtual Series, this was the sole one dedicated to virtual motorsports.

Each of the three races saw the drivers compete at different circuits with different cars, although all three cars were Toyotas, and the driver that scored the most points across all the races was declared the champion.

Mikail Hizal, the 2019 Gran Turismo Championships Nations Cup winner, took pole position in the first race and secured a bonus point for starting at the front of the pack.

Since the first race took place at the Tokyo Expressway track, which has a very long main straight, slipstream was a big factor in how the race played out.

In the early stages it was a four-way fight for first place until Beauvois was able to pull out enough of a lead to be outside of slipstream range of those behind him. That was because the rest of the frontrunners continued to scrap for track position whilst he was left unchallenged and able to pull out a gap of over one second.

Olympic Virtual Series Race 1 End Pic

That time gap ensured Beauvois took the race win and avoided the chaos behind him, triggered by Jose Serrano in sixth deciding to brake late on the inside line for the hairpin final corner. He therefore crossed the line in third but was handed a five-second penalty, which demoted him to 13th place and outside of the points scoring positions.

Igor Fraga finished in second place instead but the 2018 Nations Cup champion wasn’t able to compete in the remaining two races due to technical issues.

Gallo, who was the fastest in the time trial event, was third in the opening race with last year’s Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series champion Takuma Miyazono fourth across the line and Hizal in fifth.

The second race saw everyone drive a Toyota GR Yaris, albeit with differing tyre strategies as drivers had to use both the soft and medium compound of tyres during the race.

Beauvois qualified in second place but spent a lot of time in first place after slipstreaming past Hizal for first place.

On the final lap, contact from Japan’s Miyazono forced Beauvois wide and meant the top four drivers were running side by side on the final lap, but Beauvois was still able to come back through and take first place – with the top four all finishing within half a second of each other.

Olympic Virtual Series Race 2 End Pic

Patrick Blazsan was second with Miyazono third, Hizal fourth. Gallo was sixth after electing to start the race on the medium compound tyres but he was unable to make use of having the softer tyres due to traffic in the second stint.

Two race wins for Beauvois meant he had 24 points to his name with Miyazono and Hizal his nearest challengers both on 15 points.

After taking pole position for the final race, Gallo was on 14 points, with 24 available for the race win.

Beauvois started in third place but, heading into the hairpin turns at the top of the fictional Dragon Trail circuit, the Frenchman was pushed wide and into the gravel trap by Canada’s Andrew Brooks.

Brooks was later given a five-second penalty for the contact but Beauvois dropped to last place and four seconds behind the next driver up the road.

Gallo started the race on the softest compound of tyres and for the second stint he switched to the mediums, which meant he was able to pull out a sizable lead as he opted to use the hardest compound of tyres last.

Miyazono was running in second place but a mistake at the second high-speed chicane meant he slid into the wall and gave the position over to Hizal just before the halfway point in the race.

In their final stints, Gallo was on the hard tyres and Hizal the softs but with a deficit of 5.7 seconds to close up in five laps.

Despite catching up to the Italian on the final lap, Hizal wasn’t able to take the position away and settled for second place. while Gallo took the race win.

Olympic Virtual Series Gallo Pic

At the end of the Olympic Virtual Series Gallo had 38 points and Hizal 35 points. Were they to have finished the other way around in the final race, then Hizal would’ve been crowned the champion instead.

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