MONTREAL, Canada (6 July 2024) — This past weekend marked the beginning of a new Gran Turismo World Series live event season, with Round 1 taking place in the picturesque city of Montreal, Canada. Drivers representing 12 of the highest ranked manufacturers in the world, including official partners Toyota, Genesis, and Mazda, gathered for this first live event of the year, where a sold out crowd packed the Usine C venue for the races. Surprisingly, last year’s champion, Team Nissan, was conspicuously absent, not being able to make it out of the Online Qualifiers.

This year’s format is a bit different from last year, as each manufacturer is represented by a team of three drivers, one from each Region of the Online Qualifiers. One driver will shoulder the driving duties for each Round. Only for the World Finals will we see all three drivers team up for each manufacturer team.

The Manufacturers Cup race saw a little bit of everything, as a familiar name showed us why he remains one of the most feared and respected drivers in the series.

Grand Final: Autódromo de Interlagos

After a tightly contested Qualifying Session, it was 2018 Nations Cup Champion Igor Fraga (IOF_RACING17) who sat on pole position in his Lexus RC F GT3, the same car he races in real life in the Super GT Series.

Positioned behind him was Team Porsche’s Takuma Sasaki (SZ_TakuAn22) behind the wheel of a 911 RSR, while Guy Barbara (OP_Twitchy), representing Mercedes-AMG, rounded out the top three. For this 30-lap contest around Brazil’s Autódromo de Interlagos, each driver was required to complete at least one lap in both hard- and soft-compound tyres, so pit stop strategy played a key role in the outcome.

The frontrunners, as expected, started on the soft compounds, hoping to establish an early lead and pull away from the pack. By lap 2, the top six had already carved out a 4-second gap from the rest of the field.

The first major move of the contest came from 2021 Nations Cup champion Valerio Gallo (OP_BRacer) when he maneuvered his Honda NSX to seize P3 from Barbara’s AMG GT3. American driver Robert Heck (SV-RobbyHeck) followed suit in his Mazda RX-Vision, pushing Barbara down to P5.

The battle between Gallo and Sasaki intensified, with the Italian driver persistently challenging for P2, even making light contact with Sasaki’s Porsche. On lap 9, Fraga pitted early, opting for another set of soft tyres. Gallo mirrored this move, while Sasaki stayed out, inheriting the lead.

As Sasaki’s worn tyres forced him to pit on lap 11, he rejoined the race in P5. At the halfway point of the contest, Fraga and Gallo had widened their lead to three seconds, while Sasaki reclaimed P3 by passing Heck and then Barbara on lap 18.

On lap 19, drama unfolded as Fraga and Gallo both pitted. Fraga surprised everyone when he chose soft-compound Michelins yet again, employing a three-stop strategy, saving his hard-compound tyres for the very end of the race, whereas Gallo gambled on the hards, aiming to finish without another stop. Fraga’s strategy required him to amass at least an 11-second cushion before his final pit. Could he do it?

Lap 23 saw Sasaki pitting for hard-compound tyres, hoping that they would take his Porsche the rest of the way. He rejoined the race in P4 behind Gallo, Heck, and Fraga. Heck, needing another stop, effectively took himself out of podium contention. Fraga, meanwhile, stretched his lead to 15 seconds by lap 29.

With a final pit stop on the penultimate lap, Fraga’s calculated risk paid off. He reemerged still in the lead, easily taking the chequered flag on his home track, giving Lexus the first win of the new season. Gallo’s steady drive earned him P2 for Team Honda, while Sasaki’s resilience was rewarded with a hard-fought P3 for Team Porsche.

After the race, Fraga said, "First of all, I’m very happy to be back at the top because there were a few years where I haven’t been winning races. With the Lexus, we struggled a little but with tyre wear, so I couldn’t take the strategy to make the tyres last longer, so we gambled to pit stop more and pick up a stronger pace. It worked quite well; I had clean air for almost the whole race."

Gran Turismo World Series 2024 Round 1 - Manufacturers Cup
Grand Final Results