FIA Events '18 - World Finals Monaco Finished! Congrats to Team Lexus and Igor Fraga for Brazil!

  • Thread starter Wardez
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ZokyCRO
@Timlour Both ayumu-san and me have our personal reasons for not coming, BOP was just one of them and may infact be changed before live event, it's currently under revision by the dev team when it comes to Dodge.

I am sure the event will be special with some surprises as well, and a lot of fun of course. Enjoy the experience all that are going and give us a good show
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Timlour
Understandable, as long as BoP isn't the only reason.
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EDIT: He only has issues with BoP and the patience to do the N24 or Nords.
 
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mclarenLB
Practice is intense, I just absolutely smacked myself in the nads trying to catch oversteer, gonna try not to replicate that during the race :lol:
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LOL! I love the intensity, but mind your berries man, that hurt mine just reading what you wrote.
 
Disregard my earlier track prediction; I now know the Manufacturers Series track thanks to a cheeky look through the lobby section ;).

I won't spoil the fun for everyone else, but there's my hot tip to get the details on the World Final before it becomes public knowledge.
 
SkyPikmin
Ok so time for the big post (66 drivers might take some lines :lol:) I will tag @Jimmy B here as this might help even if I think he'll be given a lot of information, but if we can all debate kindly after this post it might be nice for him to have a sort of "community opinion" on some drivers to mention it during the live stream ;)

Apologies if the pictures are not high quality and/or barely readable, and if I missed some guys that would not show up in manufacturer series or if I misunderstood some things feel free to tell me ;) (and as always, forgive me if I do some language mistakes, as English is not my primary language)

Important thing before reading: all this work is based on my opinion, from what I saw in the live events, the experience I have racing some of these guys, and the FIA race streams I look at since months where a lot of these guys are featured, if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, well as I said it's my opinion, and then you're entirely free to post and explain to me why you thing I'm wrong about someone ;) (and remember I can still edit the post ;)), and obviously there will be more personal thoughts about EMEA region drivers because I use to race them frequently ;)

So first here are the Nations cup finalists by region, before I start running down the list I want to wish all of you the best of luck at world finals representing your country and region, and tell you that even finishing last at this event is an accomplishment because you went through online seasons and regional finals to get there ;)

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Ok so to explain how I'm going to proceed, I will run down the list in the following order: Asia - EMEA - America, so if you want to see informations on a particular driver if will be easier for you to find him.

So let's start with Asia (not much personal opinion because the event was already a month ago and since then I didn't saw many of these guys racing) :

- 1 / Ryota Kokubun / Akagi_1942mi

Leading driver from Asia, Ryota is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) GT Sport driver in the world, he qualified himself for both Nations cup cup regional finals and Manufacturer series world finals by finishing rank 1 in both championships in season 3 of the 2018 série ! Then in Asia/Oceania regional final, he was the 1st to qualify for world finals by winning the 1st block race of the day, and on the second day, he topped it all in race 1 and 3 to take the Asian crown, an 0.4s penalty preventing him from leading the field in race 2
From what we saw on live events, he looks like a favorite to win it all, because of his consistency and his ability to make 0 mistakes when racing.

- 2 / Tomoaki Yamanaka / yamado_racing38

Runner-up for Asian region, Tomoaki qualified himself for regional finals by finishing 7th in the season 3 Nation cup rankings (5th for Japan), and then qualified for the world finals by already taking 2nd behind Kokubun in the Japan block race, on day 2, he went stronger and stronger, finishing 3rd in race 1, 2nd in race 2, and again 2nd in race 3, securing him the 2nd spot for world finals, he also qualified for the manufacturer series world finals as a Toyota driver.

- 3 / Kai Hin Jonathan Wong / saika159-

Third in the official season, and 3rd at the live event, that may not seem related, but to be good in these events, you need to stay calm, like if you were driving in your room, and it seems that saika159 is capable of it, 1st Honk Kong representative, he did a really great performance at regional finals by winning his block race, and then on day 2 he went 2nd-1st-3rd, being the only one able to fight against Akagi and yamado_racing,

- 4 / Shogo Yoshida / gilles_honda_v12

Qualified as 4th for Japan (6th overall) in the season 3 Nations cup, he had to go the repechage before securing his spot for the nations cup world finals (as he is also in team Mitsubishi for the manufacturer world final), in the block race, he took 3rd behind Kokubun and Yamanaka, and then he took 2nd in his repechage race, while Shirakawa took first. On day 2, he was consistent in his performance, taking 4th-4th and 5th,

- 5 / Cody Nikola Latkovski / Nik_Makozi

I think he might be the youngest driver to attend to world finals, (@K32 will surely confirm this :lol:), Cody qualified for worlds by winning his block race by a 7s+ margin, however he didn't had the best races on day 2, when competing against the Japanese and Honk Kong drivers, finishing 6th and 8th in the first 2 races, and 4th in the last one. He is the best hope for Oceania region, so let's hope that with his young age and being the best of his country he will not suffer from to much pressure when racing at world finals ;)

- 6 / Yuki Shirakawa / yukiku

Yuki is a really fast driver, I raced him on some lobby races when training for FIA manufacturer races and he was always really fast, he is also in manufacturer series world final for Ferrari. He secured his spot by winning his repechage race (A) after finishing 5th in the Japan block race, on day 2, he was pretty consistent during the first 2 races, finishing in 5th in both of them, but in the final race he only took 8 points (finishing 7th), that explains why he only finished 6th of the event, he also looked a little bit nervous during the races, let's hope that the regional final experience will help him at world finals :)

- 7 / Yat Lam Law / NegiFISH_NaF

He secured his spot in his block race with a 2nd place finish behind saika159-, and then on day 2 he built up in confidence after a last place finish in race 1, he took 7th in race 2 and 6th in race 3, so it seems that he needed some times to get up to pace in the final day, but with the level of competition that the Asia/Oceania region provides, we can think that he could be a great competitor at world finals

- 8 / Matthew Simons / MINT_GTR

He took 2nd in his block race behind Nik_Makozi and then finished 7th-8th-8th in the final races, so maybe he just played it relax on the final day because he knew he was already in for worlds :lol: I don't have much more to say about him so if someone got more infos then feel free to tell me (and apologies to you Matthew :lol:)

- 9 / Adam Wilk / Adam_2167

Qualified for world after a great battle in repechage race B against I think his brother, only took 2nd by an 0.3s margin, I think he wanted to have a relax day 2 :lol: (again some information would be welcomed ;))

- 10 / Daniel Holland / TRL_holl01

Hmm... did he want to relax or did karma hit him during the final 3 races seeing the bm on the repechage race ? :lol::lol:


Then we will go on to the EMEA drivers, I will give more personal opinion because I race them a lot :lol::

- 1 / Mikail Hizal / TRL_LIGHTNING

Well... We all saw what happened at the regional finals :lol: Qualified for world final by finishing 2nd in his block race and then dominating day 2 with 3 victories, he is the best EMEA region driver, he is also in team Nissan for manufacturer series world final, alongside Akagi and IOF_RACING, yes... the 3 regional champions will team up in manufacturer series but we'll talk about it later (see the manufacturer series part to know more). When he start from the front row, it's pretty much already over if you don't overtake him by the first corner honestly, however (and no offense to you mate that's an objective analyzing work ;)) we saw in the online season than sometimes when under pressure he could make some mistakes, as a lot of the other, "top drivers" (I mean the likes of him, Fuvaros, NicoR, Giorgio and few others (don't punch if I didn't mentionned you :lol:). What that means is, when they start from the front and go away then they should win with no problem, but at the world finals, with the level of competition this is unlikely that we will have this scenario, and that's why I put Akagi-san on an even higher level, because I can't remember seeing him doing any big mistake in online race or in the live event, but we'll see it at worlds ;).

- 2 / Adam Suswillo / GTP_Aderrrm

Dominating the online season, Adam is one of the greatest in EMEA, winning his block race sent him directly to world finals, and then on day 2 he took 5th-3rd-3rd to finish 2nd in the regional final with a convincing performance, we saw him trying to push really hard on the final race at catalunya, leading to a mistake but we all know that it can happen to everyone, he is a clean driver and being consistent seems to be one of his strenght, so that could help him in the world finals, where nerves will come into play.

- 3 / Giorgio Mangano / Giorgio_57

He is the best ranked of those who had to go to the repechage races to qualify (finished 3rd in Block A race and then won repechage 1), and I think that a lot will agree that Giorgio is one of the fastest EMEA driver, however it seems he has a tendency to do mistakes when attacking, on live events and also on online races, we saw in day 2 of the EMEA final that he could compete with LIGHTNING in term of pure speed, but he made some mistakes that probably cost him a better spot at the end of the event, he took 2nd in a race he could have won, then again 2nd and 6th in the final race (auto-drive involved we all saw that), I think he might have a great chance at world finals if he make no mistakes.

- 4 / Jorge Lopez / Williams_Coque14

Coque was on home ground at the EMEA regional final, and that may have helped him winning his block race ahead of LIGHTNING, securing his spot for worlds in his first race, he is also qualified for manufacturer finals with team Renault Sport, he had a quite weird day 2 however, finishing 8th and 7th in the first 2 races, and then on Catalunya, finishing at an astonishing 2nd place after a little "battle" with LIGHTNING, but they were on different strategies and LIGHTNING managed to win by a very large margin at the end. Maybe if Coque can race the same way he raced this catalunya final at world finals he can have a chance at a good finishing spot in the Nations cup world finals

- 5 / Pierre Lenoir / RC_Snake91

Pierre did qualify by winning repechage B race after finishing 5th in his block race, his repechage race was a convincing win, with him able to get out of the fight and build up a good gap between him and others, then in day 2 he finished 3rd-5th and 7th in the final race at Catalunya, his major strength being his ability to manage pressure during live events, he could be a major actor of the world finals if he manages to get the maximum pace out of the car he drives

- 6 / Carlos Salazar / pcm_stj

A bit of a surprise for me to see Carlos did get through honestly, big gg to him for such an accomplishment ;). I think that even if Carlos might not be the fastest driver out there, it seems that he has what it takes to compete in live events, his 2nd place in repechage race 1 after a 4th place finish in block B race shows that he can handle the pressure pretty well, and take any opportunity that he sees to overtake, as we saw in repechage, so congrats to you and good luck for world finals ;)

- 7 / Patrik Blazsan / TRL_Fuvaros (Williams_Fuvaros)

Patrick is a very well known driver in the top level of GT Sport, he already took part in multiple live events and had some great performances, however, it seems that driving in the middle of the pack and under pressure might be his greatest weakness as we saw in the Nurburgring live event and also in day 2 of the EMEA finals. However, when starting in front he is a driver that doesn't make much mistakes and can increase the gap pretty quickly as we saw in his dominant block race win (probably the most dominant block race win of the event). In day 2 he took 4th in both 1st and 2nd race, and he had a bad final race, only finishing 9th. But keep in mind that if he manages to qualify in front, that means 80% of the work done for him

- 8 / Florent Pagandet / Jomas_74

Jomas (or Romas, or Yomas, depending of your native language :lol:) is a driver I did raced a lot, and with who I have a good friendship now in game, so I can tell you he is a driver that thinks a lot about strategies, and he also is a pretty patient driver, waiting for a mistake or for any good opportunity. He do not take many risks when racing, but if you let the door open he will surely try to overtake ;) He qualified for world finals with a 2nd place in repechage B race, after a close battle with a few other drivers, leading to the best reaction moment of the event :lol:, then on day 2, let's say he didn't had the best cars to compete in race 1 and 2 (diablo and r8 :boggled:), finishing 10th and 9th but in race 3, where everyone had the same car, a good strategy helped him get 4th place with a good use of the different tire compounds, so if he gets a good car at world final, he could pretty much take a podium finish ;)

- 9 / Anthony Duval / RC_Atho

Qualified for world finals with a 2nd place finish in block B race, Anthony is a great driver that is quite patient but knows when to be aggressive. He finished 7th, 8th and 8th in the 3 final races, but I think that doesn't really reflects his true level, he could compete with Blaszan at Nurburgring world tour, so I think even with this 9th spot in EMEA region, he can still have a great world final. I think it is also worth mentioning he was close to qualify in manufacturer series for Honda but the game servers didn't let him enter the last top 24 where he could have compete against Slent to be the EMEA Honda representative, so Anthony is a driver that can be fast on a lot of different cars, and that might help at world finals ;)

- 10 / Martin Grady / GTA_Tidgney

Martin didn't had the best final 3 races to be honest, it all started at Alsace last turn but let's not talk about that again :lol: He secured his spot for world finals by finishing 2nd in his block race, less than 1s behind Adam Suswillo, he his a very friendly guy and can be freaking fast if he gets in the flow of the track and the car he drives. He also brought to us the most thrilling story of the manufacturer series online season and the Pugtrain meme :lol:
He is well know by a lot because of his YouTube channel and he does a lot for the community with his cars/events/Bop reviews, so cheers to you Martin and best of luck at worlds ;)

And to finish with the nations cup cup drivers, let's see who are the America region representatives (because the Block races and repechages were not streamed I'm sorry I don't have a lot of informations :boggled:) :

- 1 / Igor Fraga / IOF_RACING17

Igor secured his spot for world finals by winning his block race in front of NicoR, the battle that a lot wanted to see, we already saw in online season that he was really fast and consistent, so that was not a surprise to see him in front at the start of the event, however, in the 1st race of the final, he didn't get the best result, "only" finishing 4th, (might being due to the car and tire wear), so everything was still open. But in race 2 and 3, he showed his dominance by winning the 2 races, and on the final race he won by a really large margin so he was undoubtedly the fastest on this combo, now everyone is waiting to see how he does against the likes of Akagi and LIGHTNING in the world finals, and to complete the Nissan team, he will join them as the America representative for Nissan ;)

- 2 / Fabian Portilla / FT_McQueen91

His win in repechage group 2 race sent him right in the world finals (finished 3rd in block races behing Fraga and Rubilar), then in the final 3 races, he had a nice strategy on race 1 that helped him win the race, finished 2nd in race 2, and 4th in the final race. He seems to be a driver that do not really like to be overtaken, and that is quite aggressive when being someone (just facts, no offense ;)), so he might be a problem to overtake and also put pressure on other drivers at world finals, he can also be really fast when focused, so definitively someone to watch

- 3 / Andrew McCabe / TRL_doodle

Winning his block race by a 0.071 margin secured his spot at world finals, he is said to be to kind with his surroundings when racing, and we could saw that in the final 3 races, he took 2nd and 4th in the first 2 races, and then 3rd in the final one, taking the 3rd overall place at the America's regional final. In term of pure speed, he got what it takes to compete against the like of LIGHTNING and IOF, but I hope he will be a little bit more aggressive when defending and attacking in the world final races, cheers to you and good luck at worlds ;)

- 4 / Jeffrey Gallan / FT_LLOYDZELITE

The first of the 3 canadians that will go to world finals for Nations cup, Jeffrey won his block race and only missed the podium by 1 point at the end of the event, he is a clean driver that knows when he can attack and also how to defend without losing too much time, being consistent at world finals races will be key, and I'm pretty sure that he is able of such thing, in the final 3 races, he finished 5th, 5th and 2nd, so when it comes to one-make races, he can really compete at the highest level, he is also in for Citroën in the Manufacturer series world final, so see you on track Jeffrey ;)

- 5 / Nick McMillen / GumballCGT

Already in for Mercedes in manufacturer series, Nick (who won the us gt academy in 2013), also qualified for the Nations cup world final by taking 2nd spot in his block race behind TRL_doodle, then in the final races, he finished 7th, 3rd, and th when it came to the one-make race. His experience as a real world racing driver might help him at world final to handle the pressure better than the other drivers, we'll see how he does :)

- 6 / Nicolas Rubilar / FT_NicoR

Expected to be on top of the rankings, it didn't went really good for Nicolas in the final races, he secured his spot with a 2nd place finish behind Igor Fraga in his block race, and then took 3rd in the 1st of the final races, but then he finished 8th in the 2nd race because of the pressure and the frustration, he did some mistakes, and then he took 6th in the final race, let's hope this regional event will help him learn how to handle the pressure better and that he will show is full potential at world finals, where he will also be racing for team BMW in manufacturer series ;)

- 7 / Adriano Carrazza / CRT-Didico15

I really don't know much about Adriano, he won his world final ticket by finishing 2nd in the group 2 repechage race, and then showed pretty nice pace in the finals, finishing 9th in first race, then 6th in the second one, and without a mistake on the last race, he was in a good spot to end the day on a high note but unfortunately finished 7th. Great job for qualifying to worlds, see you in Monaco and best of luck ;)

- 8 / Andrew Brooks / Deafsun96

America's Ferrari representative for the manufacturer series, Deafsun was already know to have good pace, he also secured a spot at Nations cup final with a 2nd place finish in his the Canada/Central America block race, then he started the finals with a 6th place finish on race 1, but unfortunately a last place in race 2 took away his chances at a good final spot, he finished the final race in 8th.

- 9 / Jay Szkoruda / Z28

Jay had to go to repechage to get through and he finished 2nd of the group A repechage race to get his ticket for worlds, well know because of his YouTube channel, a lot of people in the chat were interested in his performance, however he was quite anonymous in the final races (10th-7th-9th), but anyway it's a great performance to be in the world finals, and he might have a better chance if the combos suits him better in Monaco, and he is also in the Mitsubishi team for Manufacturer series, so double great performance, cheers mate ;)

- 10 / Jacob Goertz / JGOERTZ5

I don't really know Jacob (apologies again :lol:), but if he's there then he might be quite fast :lol: He won the group 1 repechage race after a 6th place finish in his block race, and in his final races he finished 8th, 9th, and 10th, maybe he was already happy to go to Monaco and took it relax, see you in Monaco mate ;)


See you all guys at Monaco :gtpflag:
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Great work @SkyPikmin . I would also like to share a little analysis, my opinion and what I know from the finalists. I will only talk about the Nations Cup because I think it is the very important one from the two championships.

First, we have must take into account what format will PD use for the World Final. As we´ve seen on regional finals, block groups will race and then there may be repechage races. Many good competitors may be taken out in the first round, and if the repechage race allows a bit of luck like the one in the European finales (GrB @ Red Bull Ring) I´m sure we will see one or a few favorites eliminated. Apart from this, maybe the last 3 races that will determine the champion will have a starting grid based on past results. The grid of the first of those races will be based on the results of a qualifying round with the combination from the very last race. I.e.: (Hizal got pole with the x2014 in Montmeló and started first in Alsace. Fraga got pole with the x2014 in Interlagos and started first on Blue Moon Bay. The pole sitter for the final phase should also have a good performance with an open wheel car like x2014). Then, we can tell the champion/podium will be determined by a steady block group round, a bit of luck maybe in the repechage, and regular results on the final three races from last day. In my opinion, the driver that will get the pole position for the first final race has a very big chance of winning the championship (Mikail Hizal was dominant on the final phase of Euro regionals most part because of his pole position with the x2014). But this can also change depending on the luck drivers have with their n500 or GR3 cars chosen randomly, or if the first race allows variety of strategies (Blue Moon Bay in American Finals, where Igor Fraga lost the victory).

I would also like to distinguish between two types of favorite drivers for this first final nations cup: those who are so fast that can be the fastest on both fast lap and race pace in any combination, and those who can have pretty good qualy laps and race pace but are not the most likely to win any race on any combination. Have also in mind that all of this drivers are so equal, so it is difficult to predict or analyze what´s going to happen. In my opinion 3 races are just not enough in most cases to determine correctly who is the best from each region, or who is the best in the world. Just 3 races may not give us any indications of, for example, what drivers are the best in street tracks like Tokyo Express Way, or who are the fastest with harder compounds. Any of the finalists can also make a significant jump on his level. These weeks they put huge amounts of effort to prepare to the regionals and to learn more tricks in order to be faster. With that being said, these are my favorite drivers to win the Nations cup from least to most favorite:


19. Adam Wilk (Adam_2167): one of the most experienced virtual drivers when it comes to competitive Gran Turismo. I´ve seen him doing incredible times in past GT Academy rounds with both controller and steering wheel, so his potential is with no doubts one of the biggest. His performance in Asian regional wasnt the best as he had enough talent to finish first, but who knows if he has been training so hard since then?

18. Dani Holland (TRL_holl01 - Team Redline): probably the best Gran Turismo 4 virtual driver. His experience lets him being able of quickly doing super fast laptimes. From what I have seen he hasnt spent much time with GT Sport, but he is arguably the best player from the history of the game so we should always take him onto consideration. His strong point are street cars with low power. But again, we can´t know if he is right now training so hard with Gr3, Gr2 or Gr4 cars.

17. Pierre Lenoir (RC_Snake91 - Race Clutch): Another very experienced player. Gran Turismo 4 world champion in 2006 if Im not mistaken. He´s been so regular in the online phase, and on the euro regional final he proved he can have a big chance for a podium if he keeps his pace.

16. Anthony Duval (RC_Atho - Race Clutch): one of the best when it comes to racing with stock setup cars in Gran Turismo 5 and 6. On his qualifying race in Brands Hatch with Gr3 in the euro final he would have been closer or even attack Fuvaros if he had had a better car. I put the two best French drivers in this position because I think we miss another two French players who would be on my top 5 favorites to win it all: TX3_TsuTsu_20 and RC_Miura.

15. Cody Nikola Latkovski (Nik_Makozi - Makozi Racing International): when this guy was 15 years old he was qite close to the pace of TRL_IMMORTAL and TRL_EVOLUTION with open wheel cars with not much practise time. He´s so young so he still has a long virtual racing career. But what really surprises from him is he just learns how to go fast very quick in any game. On Project CARS he became the #1 on ESL PS4 rankings. He hasnt had that much time this year to play GT Sport as he was in his last year of High School. However, he still has managed to find time to be fast and qualify for Asian regionals. There he showed his pure talent. As I said before, the amount of practise drivers are going to put in is going to be essential, but in Cody this factor will be determinant. I bet these last weeks he has managed to find the pace to be the clear favorite from Australia. Watch him out with that X2014!

14. Nicolás Rubilar (FT_NicoR - Flatout Threat): he may have not had the best of performances in American regional final, but he is pretty fast with the majority of cars and tracks in the game. He also has done incredible things in the online seasons for the FIA championships, like winning other american aliens with slower cars. He is so good saving fuel and thinking strategies or even changing plans during the races.

13. Jeffrey Gallan (CAR_LLOYDZELITE - ESPORTSandCARS): I didn´t know him before GT Sport came out, but I inverstigated a little and discovered he´s been very fast in GTP_WRS time trials, and probably the best player for Gran Turismo from Canada. He did a great race with the x2014 in Interlagos. In Blue Moon Bay he also showed his strategy planning skills.

12. Shogo Yoshida (gilles_honda_v12): he is best know for being the only driver to use a controller (DS3) on the GT Asian Championship in 2012, when he was so so young (so he has experience in live events). He clearly hasnt had time to work on this game, because in my opinion if he had had that time to practise he would be the Asian favorite to win it all. I think he´s one of those who may have done a significant improvement for the World Final. However, I don´t risk to put him higher in this list as his results haven´t been the best.

11. Kai Hin Jonathan Wong (saika159-): I don´t like to put drivers on this list whom I dont know much about. Kai is good friends with Mikail and has been very regular in the online phases. I must put him in this place due to his nice result in Asian regionals.

10. Andrew McCabe (TRL_doodle - Team Redline): I think Andrew would be one of my top 5 favorites to win it all if it wasnt for the time he has spent in the game. I havent seen him racing as much as in GT6, and in the online seasons I think with his potential he should have won more than he did. However, he finished 3rd in American regionals for a reason. He´s so experienced, calm, and clever in the middle of races.

9. Fabián Portilla (CAR_McQueen91 - ESPORTSandCARS): Again, this very experienced driver hasnt had all the time to dedicate to the game. He was one of the fastest in the world in stock racing leagues in GT5 and 6. His strong point are powerful street racing cars with harder compounds. As we saw in Blue Moon Bay, he was driving one of the most difficul but fast cars. In this race he also showed everyone his experience by doing a perfect strategy that led him to the victory. He could have been easily been the American regional champion. He´s so capable of handling pretty good the pressure. On the Logitech G Challenge held in Sao Paulo he managed to win Fraga in one of the races.

8. Coque López (Williams_Coque14 - Williams eSports): after a break from the competitive GT world in GT6, with the release of GT Sport Coque started full time racing on the game. At the first months he wasnt the best in Spain, but since January-February he´s just been on another level compared to the rest of Spaniards/Iberians. His strong point has always been pure race pace in online racing. He doesn´t like that much doing time trials and thats because he thinks the bests are shown when it comes to pure race pace. Maybe he will struggle in qualifying phases due to this fact. However, we saw him take pole position from Hizal in their qualifying race on the euro regional. He was also the only one there who could win the German driver in a race. On the qualifying round for the 3 final races, with the x2014 in Catalunya, he was improving Hizal´s pole time but he did a mistake. He also did the best strategy in the final race, being the only driver to start with soft tyres, a strategy that Fraga would copy on American regionals very last race. He can either be first or last in qualifying phases, but for sure he has an alien race pace and he´s one of the smartest in race strategy.

7. Tomoaki Yamanaka (yamado_racing38): another of the classic GT competitors. He started playing seriously in GT5 Prologue, who knows if even sooner when he was very young. He was close to Akagi, so that´s why I put him here, but I dont know much about his skills.

6. Adam Suswillo (GTP_Aderrrm - Williams eSports): the big surprise on the GT competitive community. A past GT Academy finalist that started playing GT Sport since the very begginig, but didnt show up until March of this year. A clean and perfect online phase made him one of the favorites to win it all on the euro final. With a little bit of luck in that final he could have easily been the european champion. He´s got an incredible race pace, specially when he starts first as he showed on St Croix. However, he struggled with x2014 qualifying in Catalunya, so he´s not as good as his Italian teammate when it comes to improvise.

5. Giorgio Mangano (Williams_Giorgio - Williams eSports): he can for sure do a faster lap time in qualy phases than Fraga, Hizal, Suswillo, Kokubun or Blazsán. The same goes for his race pace. However, on the regional finals he went so aggresive for the victory on both classification and rapechage races. That aggressiveness led him to almost lose his spot in the world finals. If he controls being aggresive, he is one of the most likely not to win it all, but for being on the podium or winning the world championship with none, 1 or 2 wins. I first put him behind Suswillo, but I think his experience with live events in GT Sport makes him better. He has one of the best capacities of improvising: being very fast with a combination you´ve never seen or practiced before. He showed this skill in the Spanish Team Championship final on June 2018 held in Madrid, and on GT World Tour in Nurbugring.


So these are my favorites to win none, 1 or 2 races in the final phase, but not to win it all. These drivers are likely to do a regular good performance throught the three final races, but not to win every single one of them. However, this doesnt mean they cant win the championship. With that regular performance they have high chances of being the champion (being Wilk the least favorite to be champ and Mangano the most) if the four super favorites fail, commit errors or even get eliminated on the previous phases.
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So now we arrive to the absolute best virtual GT Sport players currently in the world. These guys are known for being crazy quick on any car/track combination they find. It is probable one of this guys wins everything. But they are also so equal, so maybe each of them wins something. It is even more difficult to rank them, so I will try to unveil their strong points and why those special skills may benefit them for being the champ.

4. Ryota Kokubun (Akagi_1942mi): arguably the best Japanese player on the game. In time trials we havent seen him doing alien class laptimes, but this doenst mean nothing. On the asian online phase he had no rival when it comes to pure race pace. I think he may be the best driver in the whole world in terms of race pace with the majority of car types in general (most of FIA combinations we´ve had). However, I think he will find difficulties in the qualifying phase, specially if it is again with an open wheel like the X2014.

3. Mikail Hizal (TRL_LIGHTNING - Team Redline): for many people he is the best in the world. His dominance in the euro final may place him as the absolute favorite in the bets, alongside the american champ Igor Fraga. However, he is realistic and says things are going to be difficult to predict, as there´s lots of alien level. I agree with him. I think he is the best in the world in street tracks. He wasnt just the best on the euro final, but also the most regular. He did an incredible performance in Lago Maggiore despite losing to Coque (arguably Coque had a better car), he won in Alsace with not the best or baddest car, the McLaren F1. He won in Dragon Trail with a Jaguar that had lots of tyre wear in the front tyres. He was the only one not commiting mistakes in the last race with the x2014 at Catalunya. He may be the driver with the best concentration capacity. Also he may be the best when qualifying. He is probably the best in the world when it comes to handling pressure too, as he had a huge amount of it in the euro finals (everyone looked at him trough the weekend knowing for sure he will be the champion).

2. Patrik Blazsán (Williams_Fuvaros - Williams eSports): He started seriously racing with Gran Turismo 6. At the end of that game, he was so close to open wheel masters TRL_IMMORTAL or TRL_EVOLUTION, and to stock racing aliens like SONIC_Bonelli, all this with less years of experience than them. When it comes to the concept of pure race pace, he is the best in the world for GT Sport and probably the best in the history of the game. In any car/track combination you could think of, Im pretty sure he may be the fastest in the race, specially if that combination is driven with harder tyre compounds. Don´t take to seriously his performance in the euro final. For me and many other people, even some regional finalists, he was the clear favorite to win it all on the euro final.

1. Igor Fraga (Williams_IOF - Williams eSports): PURE TALENT. It´s just what I can say. I don´t believe natural or innate talent exist. But if there´s something close to a God given talent, Igor Fraga has it. I´m sorry but even if he gets eliminated on the first day of racing, or even if he losses the champinship, I will still think he is the best in GT Sport. He had to change a few months back from a G29 to a T150 and he still was equally fast. Grabbing the T GT for the first time wasnt neither a problem for him: he was the fastest with difference in the american final. A few times he´s also grabbed the controller and even improved some of his steering wheel laptimes with it. I dont know if it is his real world experience or what, but this guy´s talent is just on another level. However, this pure talent that he has doesnt make him necessarily the absolute best when it´s put into practice. Fraga showed he was human when failing to understand what was the best streategy in Blue Moon Bay in American Regionals. In my opinion he is the best in GT Sport in general (time trial, qualifying, combined with an alien race pace). But what specially distinguishes him is his unique class improvising capacity: he is the most likely to be the fastest with a randomly given steering wheel, car or track.



Thank you for reading my opinion! Remember all these guys are so good they can take out each other in the first phase, or can even be the world champion! I repeat again: I dont think 3 short races are enough to define the best drivers in the world. That´s why we may need a post-analysis after the final to see what happened!
 
Don't know if this is the right place to ask for his buuuuut, since its somewhat related, here goes for nothing...

@Jordan or @Famine, if you have a chance to meet/chat with Kaz at Monaco, could you please ask him/PD to fix/upgrade/re-program the safety cars.

This is the fourt (fifth?) GT that includes safety car(s), yet we players still have no control over the warning lights of the cars.

Even if we can use high/low beams, headlight flash and separate turn signals for left and right along with the hazard lights with all the roadcars and most of the race cars, we still can't control the lightbar and flashers of the safety cars while driving.

The only place the feature is available is Scapes.

Why only scapes? Why not on track?








Also, suggest to him adding white strobes on the reverse lights of the M4 safety car. I know the original DTM M4 SC didn't have them but the M4 GTS SC did. :P
 
Nations and Manufacturer are gonna be down to the car people are in again more than anything... I completely agree you can't really analyse the best in the world from this event. (I've seen the car selection for Nations, its pretty dumb other than the Final race)

HOWEVER, this time I actually have one of the strongest cars for Manufacturers, this is like my revenge, rather than being stuck in the RS01 and getting eaten alive on straights, Im in the fastest straight line car at the damn event... and one of the very best at overall pace around here, if I screw this up it's literally 100% on me :lol:

Also after seeing Nissans pace around this... track... I don't think they have an advantage at all, I think they have one of the worst cars on the grid.

Gonna be an interesting one for sure guys.
 
It’s so difficult to pick a winner for Nations, there are so many good drivers and the margins between them in terms of pace will likely be very small. In addition, all these drivers now have some live event experience thanks to the regional events. I think it’ll come down to who can make the fewest mistakes and keep themselves in contention. I suspect there will be an important, high-stakes race at the end for those who have kept themselves in the mix.

I’m interested to see how the pace of drivers from different regions compares, especially among the very best drivers, because there really isn’t much of a sense of exactly how that’s going to play out. I do think the pace of all three regions will be pretty similar in the end.
 
Saur
I think it’ll come down to who can make the fewest mistakes
Click to expand...

It'll be this that determines the winner more than anything else, plus a little bit of lady luck to. I mean I look at Madrid and 1 mistake, which was actually a decision I made cost me so much in the European finals.. which was staying out 1 extra lap at Alsace! I knew I made the wrong decision when I saw everyone dive in behind me. It's like I actually qualified pretty damn well at Madrid as I qualified P2 in my block race, P3 out of all 30 in Repechage and then P3 (Although I actually think it was P2) for the finals as well. It's one of the huge positives I took from Madrid actually that I was really on pace :D!

But ye back to it, the person who makes the fewest mistakes will win that's for sure, not sure you can really separate the drivers by that much just due to the fact they all made it to the worlds!

Will surely be a good show though, and good luck to everyone :D!
 
SWR_WeiTN
4. Ryota Kokubun (Akagi_1942mi): arguably the best Japanese player on the game. In time trials we havent seen him doing alien class laptimes, but this doenst mean nothing. On the asian online phase he had no rival when it comes to pure race pace. I think he may be the best driver in the whole world in terms of race pace with the majority of car types in general (most of FIA combinations we´ve had). However, I think he will find difficulties in the qualifying phase, specially if it is again with an open wheel like the X2014.
Click to expand...

What about L-Shooter? He's probably the person with more WR in daily races, often puting in 2 WR on 2 different dailies, not to mention his WR in previous GT games. He also has one of the highest % of wins per races in sport mode, including FIA races. But I don't know him and never saw him racing other people. I'm just curious about your opinion about him because you don't even mention his name.


@Tidgney, not only who makes less mistakes but who's not a victim of someone else's mistake. :D
 
zzz_pt
What about L-Shooter? He's probably the person with more WR in daily races, often puting in 2 WR on 2 different dailies, not to mention his WR in previous GT games. He also has one of the highest % of wins per races in sport mode, including FIA races. But I don't know him and never saw him racing other people. I'm just curious about your opinion about him because you don't even mention his name.
Click to expand...

The thing is. His qualifying level is really superb but when it comes down to his race pace he isn't as fast as me or any of the other top 30 for Monaco tho. He's still fast but not as fast and consistent as us. That's my opinion tho
 
TRL LIGHTNING
The thing is. His qualifying level is really superb but when it comes down to his race pace he isn't as fast as me or any of the other top 30 for Monaco tho. He's still fast but not as fast and consistent as us. That's my opinion tho
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. :)

His Sport Mode and FIA numbers make it look a bit different.

Maybe he likes TT more than anything. ^^
 
I lament the fact that L-Shooter decided not to try and qualify for the Regional Final. It left the question of just how good GT Sport's ultimate hotlapper really is unanswered. With that said, Shooter does have four test season wins and also won FIA Nations Season 1, so it's clear that he can convert hotlap pace into race pace... when he feels like it.
mclarenLB
Also after seeing Nissans pace around this... track... I don't think they have an advantage at all, I think they have one of the worst cars on the grid.
Click to expand...
I have to agree, once it got nerfed to 109% the Nissan never felt that fast when I tried it. The Ford Mustang just feels like a better option in most scenarios where you would consider the GT-R. If it wasn't for Nissan's supplementary competition enticing the aliens to drive for them, they would be a midfield runner.

I'm sure the Nissan trio will still find a way to get near the pointy end. After all, they are the #1 seed thanks to Akagi and IOF dragging the car up there, and Lightning probably could've made the gap to the #2 seed larger had he not been short on practice time in the final season. But it's really the drivers and not the car that makes this team a contender. Speaking of, if this current BoP is indeed the one being run at the Worlds, I think Porsche is going to take some catching. 'Solid' driver trio (pun intended) and a somewhat favourable BoP. 103% was too weak but 104% is proving to be too strong. PD should introduce half percent increments ;).
 

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