The second Olympic Esports champion in the Motor Sport discipline will be crowned later, following a winner-takes-all final race in Gran Turismo 7, live from the Suntec Center in Singapore.
More than 30 finalists attended the event in Singapore, with ten qualifying through the online Time Trial held in May and a further 21 by special invitation according to the FIA’s criteria. Each finalist is the only representative from their particular nation, so that no country can pick up more than one medal.
On Saturday, June 24 the finalists all took part in a time trial qualifying session to determine who 11 of the 12 finalists would be — again using the Toyota GR010 at Deep Forest, just as with the online qualifier — and that largely went to form.
All ten of the online qualifiers came through this event unscathed, albeit in a slightly different order to before. Topping the timesheets was Kylian Drumont (France) who burst onto the Gran Turismo finals scene in 2022.
He’d just edge out Adriano Carrazza (Brazil), Jose Serrano (Spain), and top online qualifier Giorgio Mangano (Italy), with first-timer Kaj de Bruin (Netherlands), and 2022 Toyota GR GT Cup finalist Will Murdoch (UK) all within a quarter of a second.
There’s some newer names further down the field, with qualifiers Karl Etyemezian (Lebanon), Benjamin Hencsei (Hungary), and Yusuke Goto (Japan) all appearing in their first Gran Turismo finals events, while Nations Cup runner-up Angel Inostroza rounds out the top ten. Inostroza is one of just two drivers to return from the 2021 Olympic Virtual Series, with his Porsche team-mate Serrano.
With the Singaporean representative, Ar Muhammed Aleef, guaranteed a spot in the final, that left just one place up for grabs. Although Estonian esports veteran Risto Kappet might have been a favorite, he missed out by just over a tenth of a second to Inigo Anton of the Philippines, who is barely half a second shy of Drumont.
The final race will be a bit of a beast, and the format hasn’t yet been made fully public. However the rough overview is it’ll consist of a 42-lap race using the exact same car/track combination as the various qualifying stages, with the Toyota GR010 hypercar at Deep Forest.
It’s likely that strategy will come into play, with all three tire grades being permitted; we’ll probably see some compulsory compound usage regulations, but this hasn’t yet been announced.
The stream gets underway at 0400 UTC on Sunday June 25, and it’s probably going to be a hard-fought race of attrition.
Competitors
See more articles on Olympic Games.
