Prague’s first ever Gran Turismo World Series live event brought some of the closest ever finishes in the history of the series, and leaves the two championships finely poised heading into the end of the season.
With 2024’s live events all featuring the same 12 racers in the Nations Cup and the same 12 brands in Manufacturers Cup, and points awarded in all three preliminary events to take into the World Final, the European round was an opportunity for each to set themselves up in a good position.
It was another busy evening, with both championship races taking place in the space of three hours — hard work for those drivers pulling a double-duty — beginning with the Manufacturers Cup.
Gran Turismo World Series Prague: Manufacturers Cup
Montreal had been Lexus’s event, as talismanic driver Igor Fraga — in his real-life Super GT race car — set pole position and took the race win courtesy of an unexpected pit strategy.
Despite switching one triple world champion for another though, its fortunes couldn’t have been more different in Prague. Coque Lopez struggled at the wet Red Bull Ring and lined up 12th on the grid — behind defending world champion Mateo Estevez in the Honda NSX, even though the Argentinian driver picked up a one-second track limits penalty.
Pole position surprisingly went to Mohamed Buhdeima in the Ferrari 458 Gr.3. Not only is this a car often highlighted by the community as being too old, but Buhdeima was making his debut at a GTWS live event. He’d line up ahead of fellow newcomers Benjamin Hencsei (who previously appeared in the Olympic Esports finals) in the Porsche and Daniel Fenton in the Mercedes-AMG.
For the majority of the 24-lap race it was all about who could deal with the wet surface at the Red Bull Ring, and some of the established drivers were having a very difficult time of it.
Jose Serrano (Toyota) came a cropper early on, dropping the avoiding Thomas Labouteley (BMW) on braking into turn four, while Labouteley was in the wars too as he collected a three-second penalty for contact with countryman Kylian Drumont (Subaru) in turn three. Lopez also dropped the Lexus under braking for turn three, but didn’t lose out too badly in the process.
With the Ferrari and Porsche holding a comfortable advantage over the rest, the race didn’t truly come into its own until the weather began to change at almost two-thirds’ distance. Estevez, having driven a cool, error-free race to drag the NSX up to fifth, was the first to pit and switch to the Intermediate tire at the end of lap 17.
Surprisingly it was the leader next in, and he was able to emerge in fourth. That quickly became third as he managed to make a relatively small tire advantage count and pass Rayan Derrouiche (Chevrolet) before a flurry of stops.
Nicolas Romero (Genesis) was the first to brave slick tires, switching to the soft option on lap 20. While not immediately gaining that much time, it was the spark for most of the rest of the field — at least those who hadn’t already gone for the Inters — to follow suit. However the leader, Hencsei only made the switch on lap 23.
That gave him five laps to make up the near-ten second advantage of the Ferrari, and despite initial progress being slow he came close. Very close, in fact, as he came within striking distance with three turns remaining. Budheima remained calm though, placing the Ferrari such that only the still-damp surface was available to slick-shod Hencsei.
It resulted in one of the closest ever finishes in the history of the series, as the British racer placed just 0.092s ahead of the Hungarian to mark a 1-2 for debutants. Labouteley claimed the final podium spot despite being earlier strife, while a point for Lopez keeps Lexus in contact with new leaders Porsche.
Manufacturers Cup Grand Final Results
- 1 – Team Ferrari (Mohamed Buhdeima) – Ferrari 458 Gr.3 – 28 laps
- 2 – Team Porsche (Benjamin Hencsei) – Porsche 911 RSR – +0.092s
- 3 – Team BMW (Thomas Labouteley) – BMW M6 GT3 – +8.067s
Manufacturers Cup Standings (After Two Rounds)
- 1 – Team Porsche (Hencsei, Mosso, Sasaki) – 9 points
- 2 – Team Lexus (Fraga, Kawakami, Lopez) – 7 points
- 3 – Team Ferrari (Buhdeima, Hashima, Regalado) – 6 points
Gran Turismo World Series Prague: Nations Cup
Takuma Miyazono very much continued the form that saw him take pole position and win in Montreal, with another pole position in Prague. Once again using the X2019 Competition, the 2020 champion beat the 2021 champion — Valerio Gallo — by just 0.035s at Dragon Trail Seaside, in a grid covered by less than half a second.
That set the grid for the Qualifying Race, which this time was a one-make event for the classic Honda RA272, Honda’s first ever Formula One race winner. The race itself was a seven-lap sprint at the new Eiger Nordwand course, which you’ll be able to do yourself (for the next few hours at least) in Daily Race C this week.
Overtaking on this narrow track, even with the relatively small cars, was a challenge and relatively few position changes took place — perhaps the most notable being Takuma Sasaki nipping by Calen Roach to steal a podium spot. That didn’t stop the drivers from trying though, and a last-gasp attempt from Gallo almost got him past a sideways Miyazono at the finish, with just 0.035s separating them.
Miyazono then would line up at the front of the grand final again, but his lead didn’t last long as the battle with Gallo resumed. That wasn’t quite the full picture though as six cars were vying for the lead in the opening and rather messy laps.
Caught out by last-place man Lopez being the only car to start on soft tires, Guy Barbara made an error which accounted for himself (and earned him an insult-to-injury penalty) and saw Jose Serrano taking evasive action. Robbie Heck and Adriano Carrazza would also collide in an unusual place, dropping both down the order from the top five.
Lopez though was on a last-to-first mission on the softs, and nipped past Kaj de Bruin for the lead at the start of lap eight. Mission accomplished, the 2022-2023 champion pitted for fresh medium tires at the end of the lap.
With a third of the race now in the books it was still a top-eight group covered by less than a second, until Angel Inostroza opted to get out of the battle for fresh softs and clear air.
The undercut worked brilliantly for Inostroza, seeing him get past the leaders who stopped a couple of laps later. However he’d then encounter Lopez on the alternative strategy, and things went sideways. Perhaps in haste, Inostroza picked the wrong side to go and a mid-corner wiggle from the Spanish racer saw the Chilean sent into the barriers on both sides.
Sasaki had inherited the lead — though he had been fighting for it on merit previously — and was running very long on his first set of medium tires. He’d dive in at the end of lap 20 as the eight cars behind him all closed in, with de Bruin opting to follow the Japanese driver in for a final set of tires. Oddly the Dutch driver selected mediums rather than the expected softs.
That gave us an exceptional showdown for the final nine laps, as de Bruin (the only driver on mediums now) was racing Sasaki, Miyazono, Gallo, Serrano, and, after a quiet race thus far, Kylian Drumont. Even Lopez and Roach weren’t out of contention yet.
However, even with these drivers, the four-wide racing energy wasn’t going to last long — with only the tiniest mistake needed to cause major consequences, and it came to the luckless Serrano. Having dropped to last in the opening exchanges, he took the lead with seven remaining only to fall right to back of the pack again.
Serrano braked just a fraction too late for the chicane, allowing Drumont past. In the process though, Drumont clipped the Spaniard’s rear-left and sent him deeper into the turn — with no further action taken, despite being rather similar to an incident that saw Pol Urra disqualified from an online round…
Worse came as Serrano rejoined the track, skittling the cars coming through and in particular impacting Sasaki who ended up facing the wrong way and impeding Miyazono. That left Drumont, Gallo, and Lopez as a front three with a gap of more than four seconds back to Robbie Heck.
Still though the chaos wasn’t quite done, as the trio battled into the closing stages. It came to a head in the final turn, as Gallo’s defensive line resulted in Lopez and Drumont tripping over one another and the Spanish driver spinning. He was just able to recover in time to lead Heck across the line, with Gallo taking the win from Drumont.
Despite that final corner chaos, Lopez now takes the overall championship lead courtesy of being the only driver with two successive podium finishes. Gallo leaps up into second, while Miyazono failed to score but still sits in third. Drumont, Serrano, and de Bruin are tied in fourth on five points apiece.
Nations Cup Grand Final Results
- 1 – Valerio Gallo (Italy) – Red Bull X2019 Competition – 32 laps
- 2 – Kylian Drumont (France) – Red Bull X2019 Competition – +1.655s
- 3 – Coque Lopez (Spain) – Red Bull X2019 Competition – +4.536s
Nations Cup Standings (After Two Rounds)
- 1 – Coque Lopez (Spain) – 8 points
- 2 – Valerio Gallo (Italy) – 7 points
- 3 – Takuma Miyazono (Japan) – 6 points
Seven weeks are left until the final prelimary round of the season as the GT World Series heads to Tokyo. It’ll be the last chance for the qualified brands and drivers to rack up some World Series points to take into December’s Amsterdam final, so there’s sure to be plenty of action.
Tickets are on sale now for the Tokyo event, where we’ll see the final representatives for each of the 12 Manufacturers Cup finalist marques and the Nations Cup racers resume their battle. We’ll see you there on Saturday September 28!
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