Gran Turismo Nations Cup returns to Spa | FOS Future Lab

However, it was the online Round 1 winner Lucas Bonelli who’d place his Porsche 911 Strassenversion on pole position for the race at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, with Inostroza alongside. Gallo, who’s yet to score this season, was third, while the two main championship contenders – Fraga and Drumont – were in the bottom half of the grid.

Bonelli’s start though was poor. First Inostroza hit the front, beating the Brazilian through the Eau Rouge/Raidillon complex, before Gallo streamed past on the Kemmel Straight. Fourth-placed Jose Serrano was also looking to make a pass.

The race’s main talking point though happened right at the first braking zone at Les Combes. Adriano Carrazza misjudged his mark and clipped the back of Serrano, sending him skittering across to the outside, where he collided with Gallo, taking both cars off. While Serrano recovered to fourth, behind Bonelli and Kanata Kawakami, Gallo dropped down to 11^th and Carrazza picked up a three-second penalty that would see him move down to last. Inostroza then put on a masterclass, carving an enormous gap to Bonelli behind to take a four-second advantage into the pit stop window.

For the first time though, the Gran Turismo World Series employed variable weather conditions and as the race approached halfway the rain began to fall. That prompted Serrano to dive into the pits on lap six to take a set of intermediate rain tyres while the rest – aside from Carrazza at the back – continued on the soft slicks. By the time the field made it round to the Bus Stop again, the rain was coming down hard but surprisingly Inostroza opted to continue on the slicks. Most of the grid pitted, leaving Inostroza, Gallo, Ryota Kokubun, and Tomoaki Yamanaka to carry on for another lap.

The intermediate-shod cars were still slower at this point, so when the front four pitted they came back out still leading the race – except for Yamanaka who made the unusual decision to swap for new soft tyres and fell down the field.

With pace to spare, Inostroza maintained the gap for the remaining four laps to take his first Nations Cup victory – adding to two Manufacturers Cup wins in previous seasons, and his two class wins in the GT World Challenge America this year, all in Porsche 911s – and three World Series points. Gallo also picked up his first points of the season in second, while Kokubun completed the podium and grabbed the final point to add to his tally. Yamanaka came within touching distance after a scorching final lap in much drier conditions saw him gain three spots on the slicks.

That means Fraga still leads the way on seven points, with Drumont in second place on six, and Kokubun now third on his own in five. There’s one final online event on 30^th October, with the same field of 12 drivers, before the World Final in November.

The GT World Challenge took its “Fanatec Arena” over to the USA for the first time, for a special invitational event at the 8 Hours of Indianapolis featuring pro drivers and select Esports racers in two races.

Elvis Rankin, Skip Barber Formula 4 driver and Apex Racing sim driver, unsurprisingly took pole position for the pros, but was among the cars collected in a turn one incident when Steven Aghakhani missed the braking point. Bobby Krug took the lead, but was soon overwhelmed by the pack of BMWs behind, with Gresham Wagner hitting the front. Devin Anderson claimed the lead after six laps, before cruising to a ten-second win.

It was a much less frantic event for the sim racers, with Gregor Schill running an almost lights-to-flag victory – only surrendering the lead briefly in the pit stop window as Cameron Martineau stopped one lap later – three seconds ahead of Christopher Severt.

Logitech G has announced the fifth season of the Logitech McLaren G Challenge, with a prize bundle worth a total of $150,000 (£135,000).

The free-to-enter event runs on Assetto Corsa Competizione on PC, and consists of an in-game qualifing round, four knockout rounds, and a grand final in each of the four regions: Europe (EU), North America (NA), Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Latin America (LATAM).

It’s open now, with the qualifiers running through to 18^th October. The live grand final will take place on 19^th March 2023, with a trip to the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix available for each of the four regional winners.