France’s Kylian Drumont took victory in the Olympic Esports Week Motor Sport Event to claim the first global Gran Turismo 7 title of the year.
Having been the fastest qualifier in the pre-qualifying round on Saturday, at the Suntec Center in Singapore, Drumont went into the final as one of the favorites — alongside top online qualifier Giorgio Mangano (Italy) and Adriano Carrazza (Brazil) who’s shown terrific form with the Toyota GR010 at Deep Forest.
However the qualifying session for the final catapulted another name to the top of the standings, with Angel Inostroza (Chile) — unlucky not to have been crowned world champion in 2022 — setting the fastest time of all. Drumont had been on course to beat him, but a technical failure robbed him of his fastest lap and the Frenchman had to settle for second on a do-over run.
While most of the field opted for the medium tire compound — and the regulations requiring use of any two grades from the three available — Inostroza opted for the aggressive strategy in starting on softs; newcomers Ar Muhammed Aleef (Singapore) and Inigo Anton (Philippines) were the only drivers on the hard tire.
Unsurprisingly that saw the Chilean streak ahead in the opening stages, drawing out a four-second advantage before becoming the first driver to stop for fresh rubber — mediums this time — on lap 11. Emerging into clear air between the hard and medium runners, Inostroza looked to be on a winning strategy.
Behind him, the man on the move was Mangano, trying to erase a poor qualification position. He’d made it up to fifth by the time Inostroza pitted, and that became fourth when Serrano rolled the dice and was the only driver to pick hards for his second stint.
Drumont though was the fastest of the front-runners on that middle session, cutting into Inostroza’s lead courtesy of three-lap fresher mediums. That also meant Inostroza had to stop significantly earlier for his final stint, putting Drumont in clean air ahead of his own final stop for the softs.
Once the second round of stops had played out, it was Serrano in the lead as he was clearly running to the end on the hards from his one and only stop. However he needed more time than he had; with ten laps remaining, the lead was barely two seconds from Inostroza on medium tires — with Drumont a further two seconds back.
Inevitably that saw all three cars occupying the same piece of asphalt, seven laps from home. Just as Inostroza caught up with Serrano, Drumont caught up with both — at the first turn. Three abreast into the corner pretty much guarantees contact, and sure enough the French and Chilean drivers clashed as both attempted to go for the inside.
The stewards determined that this was not worthy of any penalties — probably not surprising Inostroza — but it would have been immaterial anyway such was the pace advantage Drumont had over his rivals.
Serrano would drop away further, partly hobbled by the tires and partly nobbled by Carrazza, who did pick up a two-second penalty after driving clean into the rear of the Spaniard in the mid-lap tunnel complex. That meant Will Murdoch (UK), who’d been having such a quiet race we haven’t even mentioned him yet, would climb into the final podium spot.
Murdoch would then take second from Inostroza on the penultimate lap, using the tire advantage to go right round the outside of turn one as Inostroza’s hypercar slithered about on corner exit.
Drumont though was six seconds down the road at this point and simply had to coast to the line to claim his second live Gran Turismo event title in under a year, and the Olympic Esports Series Motor Sport Event gold for France.
Murdoch for the United Kingdom and Inostroza for Chile would take silver and bronze respectively. Drumont’s gold would be one of four won by France during the Olympic Esports Week, with the nation topping the medal table — and the only country to win multiple golds — as a result. Murdoch’s silver helped the UK into third, as the most-medaled nation of all, behind the USA which collected one more silver medal.
Race Result
- 1 – Kylian Drumont (France) – 42 laps
- 2 – Will Murdoch (United Kingdom) – +5.624s
- 3 – Angel Inostroza (Chile) – +7.876s
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