Gran Turismo World Series (2025 Nations Cup | April 23 - May 10)

[Moose78]

That was intense!

I ran the first GT1 slot (9PM EDT) in North America -- door #9 with 161 points up for grabs.

Qualifying couldn't have gone better. I banked a 1:28.486, pretty much matching the best I'd set in Free Practice just prior to the race. That put me in Q6 to start.

The plan was a 18RM-1RH-11RS strategy.

The start was clean for me, but not everybody. There was some chaos behind.

I was shortly after promoted to P5 when one of the cars ahead spun out going up the hill at T3. I climbed to P4 later in the lap when the driver ahead rear-ended the car ahead of them.

There was a driver on RHs in P2. The car ahead of me was on RS tires and managed to get by them, but I got stuck behind until they pitted at the end of lap 4. Up to P3 with plenty of clean air ahead. Both of the drivers ahead were on RS tires and had driven way.

I got to work putting in some laps. I was pushing hard because there was an American right on my tail the whole time. Things were going well. I even managed some laps in the 1:29s, which I'd never done in my practice races.

The two RS runners eventually pitted -- on laps 10 and 12 -- promoting me to the lead until I pitted for RHs on lap 18. I came out in P5. Pitted again for RMs on lap 19. Came out still in P5. I'd pass a driver in the pits a few laps later, getting me up to P4.

On lap 26, one of the drivers ahead came out of the pits on RHs just ahead of me. I got by them on the big right-hander before the back straight.

It wasn't the cleanest move. I misjudged where they were and how much space I was leaving them and we came together on the exit. Apologies to WAR if you're out there. Not sure it made any material difference to either of our races because of the different tire compounds, but apologies all the same. Up to P3.

The American was still right on my tail. I couldn't shake them. They threatened a few times, but I managed to hold them off. Their chance finally came at the end of lap 29 when I made a mistake in the final tunnel.

I'd have to settle for P4, or so I thought. On the final time through the downhill section of sector 1, their rear end slipped out and they went for a spin.

Promoted to P3 for a podium finish. 151 points and nice boost to my DR. What a great race! I really enjoyed that.

 

[bliprunner]

I feel the same way as a few others here, GTWS means time and commitment from us and PD need to give a bit more in return.

A few more slots, different car and track combos, more weather, fix up the penalty system, maybe add a new track or two...?

Anyway, I did the only slot I could at 6pm. No second chances, door 16 and my low .27 was only enough for P12.

Went with medium/hard/soft and changed at lap 19 which was maybe one too many, the final medium lap was slow and at the end of the race my softs were in good shape.

Fun race overall though, no big errors, lots of strategies going on, decent sportsmanship, no final lap punt, moved up a few places for P9, and in this lobby that was enough for 200 points and a DR increase.

For the first time I also used the pit engineer voice in the Ezio app to give me tyre temp info. Just nice to have a reminder when tyres are cold, and potentially when they overheat. That wasn't likely to happen here but the next race it could be useful...

 

[tankuroded]

Nations standings and cutline as of Round 5 (bit late today because I wasn't at home all day):

 

[MIE1992]

I took a look at my standings and I've dropped down to second among Connecticut's GT2 drivers, but I'm only off by not even ten points. After this final round, I have a lot of faith I'll be first, since I've only got four registered rounds right now and the person in first does indeed have a full five.

 

[Wilsonson]

Nations standings and cutline as of Round 5 (bit late today because I wasn't at home all day):
View attachment 1449329

You're the data nerd's champ! Would it be possible to add each driver's worst counting score? This would give an indication of how tough or easy it could be for them to increase their points total in the last round.

 

[Nakano219]

Nations standings and cutline as of Round 5 (bit late today because I wasn't at home all day):
View attachment 1449329

Is there anyone around 400-450 points behind, but with a 0, who could jump into contention late when they get to drop that 0?

 

[Mistah_MCA]

Nations standings and cutline as of Round 5 (bit late today because I wasn't at home all day):
View attachment 1449329

... Should I be scared to ask what happened in OCE?

 

[BluRacer7]

After 3 attempts of this round, I'm happy with my 3rd slot.

Qualifying wasn't that good, in fact it's terrible that in my 1st slot I did a 1:26.479 it was good enough for 9th but in my 3rd slot my time was 1:27.598 and I was in a high split lobby where 394pts is up for grabs so naturally I started the race in last place.

I went for 1H-18M-11S and worked with pcm_stj to push our way up the order and in the end I went from Last to 8th with 279pts, could've got 7th but the skill gap between drivers is massive.

Here's my full POV of the race here, if anyone here has the free time I would love some constructive feedback on my racing in what area's I could've improve on and critique my racing. Be very appreciated.

 

[A1an]

Just wondering what members thoughts are on the best car for Saturday?

I am not going to have any time at all today, but all these cars seem popular ones I have seen people use, I am not keen on the Genesis or Toyota tbh, I am guessing that the Toyota or BMW will be the ones to go for though?

 

[BluRacer7]

Right now based on the leaderboards it's predominantly BMW and some few Lexus' here and there. But hadn't test which of the 5 cars have the best tyre wear, could be a situation where the BMW may be the faster car but not the best on tyres compare to the rest.

 

[Zorz]

I've got a feeling I've heard/seen people saying the BMW is decent on tyres on YouTube videos. I don't do dailies and haven't used the BMW M6 online since GT Sport though so don't quote me on that.

I'm staying away from the Lexus myself unless I see something that gives me reason to question my current thoughts on it. I haven't driven it since GT Sport either, but my impression from seeing others in GTWS is that it's amazing for fuel efficiency but poor for front tyre wear. I remember being shocked watching the live events last year when they popped this up:

P1-5 are all in a train there so it's not as though Fraga's pushed like crazy to break away, and I can't imagine he's going to be that bad at managing his tyres.

I also remember checking the replay after the Suzuka round in the February exhibition season as I'd been in a tight fight with a Lexus and his front tyres seemed relatively poor compared to others too.

 

[stpatty]

The M6 has been the meta in Gr.3 for some time.

I'm using the GT-R.

 

[Moose78]

I just did a custom race a Lago Maggiore against a full field of cars in the BMW. It looks like this might be another one where we choose between a full-out 2-stopper or a tire-saving 1-stopper.

I was trying to see how long I could get the tires to last. I was able to make it to 15 laps from the start. Just barely. There was about 10% of the tread left on the front left when I got to the pits.

Time to start testing for real, though. I'm hoping to take all of the cars out for a 15-lap test to see how they fare. I'll post results here when I've done them all.

 

[TheWeapon874]

... Should I be scared to ask what happened in OCE?

It was a bit of a messy finish. Personally I think Guy Barbara was a little hard done by. Basically the top 3 went into the final chicane very very close. McEwan seemed to go too deep and run off the track (and perhaps re entered in an unsafe manner), Barbara stayed in front, and didn't exceed track limits, but used a lot of the track into the first part of the chicane. As a result, Jeeesh got a better exit and was passing both on the outside, Barbara corrected an oversteer, bumped Jeeesh (who died) and took the win.

My main problem with the deletion of points is that it doesn't help Jeeesh or the rest of the field. I feel that the places should be moved up as a result, and the points updated accordingly.

 

[emGieT]

I've got a feeling I've heard/seen people saying the BMW is decent on tyres on YouTube videos. I don't do dailies and haven't used the BMW M6 online since GT Sport though so don't quote me on that.

I'm staying away from the Lexus myself unless I see something that gives me reason to question my current thoughts on it. I haven't driven it since GT Sport either, but my impression from seeing others in GTWS is that it's amazing for fuel efficiency but poor for front tyre wear. I remember being shocked watching the live events last year when they popped this up:

View attachment 1449415

P1-5 are all in a train there so it's not as though Fraga's pushed like crazy to break away, and I can't imagine he's going to be that bad at managing his tyres.

I also remember checking the replay after the Suzuka round in the February exhibition season as I'd been in a tight fight with a Lexus and his front tyres seemed relatively poor compared to others too.

I have done Manufactures Cup with Lexus and yeah... That was far from fun.
Even though I ended up in silver zone of GT1 (which isn't bad for me ), I wouldn't recommend that car also. I struggled a lot with that thing, especially with tire wear and traction. It's very easy to overheat front tires on it, and once they overheat you are done...
It has potential, but it requires very skillful driver, like the aforementioned Fraga. He was doing magic with that boat.
I think I'll try GT-R or Genesis on upcoming round.

 

[bliprunner]

After 3 attempts of this round, I'm happy with my 3rd slot.

Qualifying wasn't that good, in fact it's terrible that in my 1st slot I did a 1:26.479 it was good enough for 9th but in my 3rd slot my time was 1:27.598 and I was in a high split lobby where 394pts is up for grabs so naturally I started the race in last place.

I went for 1H-18M-11S and worked with pcm_stj to push our way up the order and in the end I went from Last to 8th with 279pts, could've got 7th but the skill gap between drivers is massive.
View attachment 1449393

Here's my full POV of the race here, if anyone here has the free time I would love some constructive feedback on my racing in what area's I could've improve on and critique my racing. Be very appreciated.

I have one piece of feedback... perhaps you could leave my local area so I can be top? 😉

Seriously, great result. Watching your video has shown me where I was going wrong in a few corners...

 

[BluRacer7]

I did some testing with the BMW and you gotta take my result with a pinch of salt as I am racing on pad.

The 2 stop is the way to go with 9S-10S-10S, I don't see the 1 stop viable unless you go really, really slow to protect those fronts as well as coasting. The BMW also bogs down on grid starts but the Nissan GTR has better launch off the line so I can see that happen with few drivers want to go off meta.

 

[Moose78]

I've tried doing 15 laps in four of the five cars now at Lago Maggiore. The last one I have to yet to do is Toyota. I was able to get to 15 laps with some tread left on the tire on all but the Genesis. It lost the last bit of tread at the start of lap 15. The other three cars -- BMW, Lexus, and Nissan -- were pretty similar in tire wear. They all just had a hair left at the end of 15 laps.

I did a quick test in Free Practice to see what the pit time is for a tire change: about 22.1s. Knowing that, I can simulate 1-, 2-, and 3-stop strategies for each of the cars using the lap times from my test. Currently, the 1-stop in the Nissan is my fastest option.

It should be noted that I'm embarrassingly slow in this combo and on top of that, I was taking it easy on the tires the whole time so I could make it to 15 laps. If I were driving more aggressively, I might be able to make up the difference with a 2-stop.

Anyways, details in the SPOILER section below...

Spoiler: Tables and charts

Manufacturer	Model	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	1:59.047	1:59.234	2:01.121	30:16.819
Genesis	X GR3	1:58.964	1:59.476	2:02.174	30:32.606
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	1:59.226	1:59.444	2:01.517	30:22.752
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	1:58.786	1:58.993	2:01.064	30:15.962

Tire tread levels after 15 laps:

Manufacturer	Model	Front left	Front right	Rear left	Rear right	Screenshot
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	5%	20%	35%	40%
Genesis	X GR3	0%	5%	35%	40%
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	5%	15%	35%	35%
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	1%	10%	35%	35%

Simulated strategies (by least total time):

Manufacturer	Model	Strategy	Total time
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	15RS-14RS	58:50.055
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	15RS-14RS	58:52.073
Genesis	X GR3	10RS-10RS-9RS	58:56.362
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	10RS-10RS-9RS	58:58.441
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	10RS-10RS-9RS	58:58.739
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	15RS-14RS	59:03.101
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	10RS-10RS-9RS	59:08.850
Genesis	X GR3	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	59:11.870
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	59:13.438
Genesis	X GR3	15RS-14RS	59:16.053
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	59:22.331
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	59:29.311

Raw data is available in this spreadsheet.

Added: If i do end up going with a 1-stop strategy, I'll probably do the 14-lap stint first so that I can take advantage of the lower fuel weight for the longer 15-lap stint at the end. I'm hoping the lower weight will help the tires last a bit better towards the end.

 

[Zorz]

I've done some further testing and I think I shall be going for a 2-stop. I'm not sure I can make the 1-stop work. I managed it at Autopolis, but barely managed to get the BMW to the end of lap 14 running on my own in a custom race.

Knowing how much extra tyre life I lost in the real race compared to testing at Autopolis, I reckon I'll kill my front left with a lap to go on each stint. If anyone goes for it and pulls it off, you have my respect!

Since I'm now aiming for a 2-stop, I thought I'd give the Lexus a shot. I'm a bit faster with it in free practice but now that I've tried it out, I'm even more convinced that it is not a good choice here and would encourage anyone thinking about it to reconsider if they haven't already tested it thoroughly.

Here's what happened when I simulated the opening stint for a 9/10/10 strategy with the Lexus and BMW without making any efforts to preserve tyres.

Lexus

BMW

Taking some extra life out the tyres to account for sliding around in dirty air and fighting, the Lexus really looks bad (in my hands at least!)

 

[A1an]

I am going with the BMW.

I think it will be a two stopper for me, the front left tire for me is a big risk.

Good luck for the race everyone.

 

[ZEE]

I did some testing at the oldy LAKE Maggi, the BMW is slow in my runs, too boaty, I am much quicker with the NISMO GTR GT3 '18.

 

[Moose78]

I finished up my test of the Toyota. There is no way I could get it to 15 laps. Front left died on lap 10, the front right a lap later.

I also tried a full-out 10-lap stint in the BMW and used those numbers for my 2- and 3-stop simulations. Turns out the 2-stop is way faster for me than saving tires for a 1-stop. Not even close. Looks like I'll be doing a 2-stop tomorrow.

I might try out a 10-lap test for the Nissan yet, since it was the fastest for me in the tire-saving tests.

More details in the spoiler below.

Spoiler: Tables and charts

Manufacturer	Model	Laps	Opt time	Best time	Avg time	Total time
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	15	1:59.047	1:59.234	2:01.121	30:16.819
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	10	1:57.570	1:57.794	1:59.190	19:51.902
Genesis	X GR3	15	1:58.964	1:59.476	2:02.174	30:32.606
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	15	1:59.226	1:59.444	2:01.517	30:22.752
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	15	1:58.786	1:58.993	2:01.064	30:15.962
Toyota	GR Supra Racing Concept '18	15	1:59.657	1:59.657	2:06.529	31:37.941

Tire tread levels:

Manufactuer	Model	Laps	Front Left	Front Right	Rear Left	Rear Right
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	15	5%	20%	35%	40%
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	10	25%	30%	60%	60%
Genesis	X GR3	15	0%	5%	35%	40%
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	15	5%	15%	35%	35%
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	15	1%	10%	35%	35%
Toyota	GR Supra Racing Concept '18	15	0%	0%	40%	45%

Simulated strategies (by total time):

Manufacturer	Model	Strategy	Total time
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	10RS-10RS-9RS	58:19.697
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	58:37.756
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	15RS-14RS	58:50.055
BMW	M6 GT3 Sprint Model '16	15RS-14RS	58:52.073
Genesis	X GR3	10RS-10RS-9RS	58:56.362
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	10RS-10RS-9RS	58:58.739
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	15RS-14RS	59:03.101
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	10RS-10RS-9RS	59:08.850
Genesis	X GR3	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	59:11.870
Genesis	X GR3	15RS-14RS	59:16.053
Nissan	GT-R NISMO GT3 '18	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	59:22.331
Lexus	RC F GT3 '17	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	59:29.311
Toyota	GR Supra Racing Concept '18	10RS-10RS-9RS	59:31.082
Toyota	GR Supra Racing Concept '18	8RS-7RS-7RS-7RS	59:38.080
Toyota	GR Supra Racing Concept '18	15RS-14RS	61:21.180

 

[goudaj]

Finished Slot 1 of GT2 Oceania. 2 stop worked great for me (end of lap 9 and 19). I started P2 in the BMW, the pole sitter was in the Toyota. Our pace was similar but the Toyota was shocking on tyres, it's pace dropped off and I got by I think lap 5. They had to do an early stop end of lap 7.

The driver who qualified behind me in P3, also in the BMW, was doing a 1 stop (end of lap 14). When I came out of the pits after my last stop, they were in P1 about 8 seconds ahead. I was able catch and pass them for lead near the start of lap 28, finishing 1st by 8 seconds.