FIA Online Championship

We expected a close race in today’s Manufacturer Series final for the GT Sport FIA Championship in Monaco. But we didn’t foresee the nail-biter that came to pass in one of the wildest live esport events yet.

When we say the drivers look to this from the Nations Cup, that’s only partially true. While you’ll find plenty of familiar names below, there are also a fair amount of drivers here in the south of France for only the Manufacturer Series.

Today is day two of the first GT Sport World Final. We’ve seen the Nations Cup already, where 30 initial drivers has become 16 ahead of Sunday’s finals. But before that, it’s time for something a little different: the Manufacturer Series.

Five-time F1 world champion, and Gran Turismo “Maestro” Lewis Hamilton welcomed the 30 drivers to the stage, but with all the preparations done and dusted it was time to get down to action in Monaco on Friday.

These are the 30 fastest drivers in the world for Nations Cup. From GT Academy champions and finalists — including GTPlanet’s own Adam Suswillo — they’re all potential winners at this level of ability. We’ve covered the regional winning trio, as well as a handful of the other drivers that could spoil their championship dreams.

Back in 2013, GT Academy was in full swing, and a promising young driver from the UK by the name of Adam Suswillo made it all the way to the final race of the competition. Despite an impressive performance, Suswillo came up just short of the crown, as the judges selected Portugal’s Miguel Faisca as that year’s European GT Academy champion.

We’re only a day away from the FIA-certified Gran Turismo Championship World Finals beginning, and the predictions are rolling in.

We’re on the ground in Monaco ahead of this weekend’s inaugural Gran Turismo Sport FIA-Certified World Final. Yesterday we looked back at the three regional Nations Cup winners, and today we’re spotlighting the folks that could give them an upset here in Southern France.

When the Americas Regional Finals for the FIA-certified GT Championship were broadcast from Las Vegas two weeks ago, only brief clips of the World Final qualification races — also known as the “block” and “repechage” races — were shown on the live stream. Instead, the stream focused on the resulting top 10 drivers and their three final races to determine the regional champion.

It’s nearly crunch time. GT Sport’s flagship feature, the FIA-Certified Online Championship, will reach its climax later this week in Monaco.

We caught up with Kazunori Yamauchi recently, at the EMEA Regional Final in Madrid. Although much of our time was taken up with the Nations Cup and GT Sport one year on from launch, we were able to get some fascinating insights on other topics too.

Amid all the bustle of the spectacular FIA Regional Finals events, GTPlanet was able to sit down with the FIA’s Stephane Fillastre. Fillastre is the association’s head of brand, licensing and retail, and probably the person at the FIA most directly involved with GT Sport and the online championships.

The 2018 FIA GT Americas Regional Championship was held in Las Vegas last week, and saw the crowning of the first Americas Champion: Igor Fraga, known as “IOF_RACING17” in GT Sport.

It’s a secret no longer: the World Finals for the FIA-certified GT Sport Nations and Manufacturers Cups are happening in two weeks. And they’re happening in stunning Monaco.

The third and final Gran Turismo Sport regional finals wrapped up in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Another 10 drivers locked in their spots in next month’s World Finals in Monaco, but it was 20-year old Igor Fraga (IOF_RACING17) that emerged at the top of the pile as the Americas champion.

If you’ve been keeping one eye on GT Sport’s Regional Finals in October, you’ll have noticed a significant difference in the races.

30 drivers arrived in Las Vegas earlier this week after qualifying through multiple online seasons. After the usual battery of three Gr.3 block races  and two repechage races — in the unexpectedly entertaining F-150 Raptor at Willow Springs — these drivers from Chile, Brazil, Canada, and the USA remain.

Before we completely close the page on last week’s FIA-certified GT Championship EMEA Regional Finals and prepare for this week’s American Regional Finals in Las Vegas (which we’ll also be covering in full), we need to stop and take a moment to reflect on one of the best Gran Turismo events, ever.

In case you missed it, GTPlanet was on hand at Madrid Games Week for the FIA-certified GT Sport Online Championship regional final. While there, with all the action going on around us, we were able to catch up again with Gran Turismo series founder Kazunori Yamauchi.

As you probably know if you’ve read our extensive race reports from the FIA GT Championship EMEA Regional Finals, TRL_LIGHTNING (Mikail Hizal) was crowned the overall 2018 European Champion. Nine more drivers also qualified to move forward to the next stage of the competition, with the chance to represent their countries in the World Finals next month.