Nine of the finalists from the 2024 Gran Turismo World Series Nations Cup will gather together to fight for this year’s title in the live events, with four who’ve held the distinctive trophy aloft.
Only 12 places are available for the 2025 finals, and with a “seed” system in operation guaranteeing three spots to the best three drivers across the 2024 championship — two-time winner Takuma Miyazono, runner-up Kylian Drumont, and 2023 Team Spain winner Jose Serrano — that meant just nine berths for the best online qualifiers.
These were distributed as usual, with the Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) region having the largest playerbase and the most additional finals spots at four. The Americas region would have three combined, split 2:1 in favor of South America, with the remaining two places divided equally between Asia and Oceania.
That meant some stiff competition in three regions, with only one spot on offer apiece — compared to 30-player finals in years gone by — with multiple previous finalists battling out for that precious invitation.
In the case of Oceania that got a little too tight at times, with a three-way battle across much of the season that resulted in some disqualifications in the fourth round. That would see eventual qualifier Guy Barbara and his nearest competitor Matthew McEwen both penalized for some wheel banging in the final chicane that resulted in Joshua Struik getting pinged off the circuit. However Struik would have just fallen short in his effort to qualify even if the points had been reassigned rather than just struck off, with Barbara coming out 55 points clear.
There was a similar situation in the Asia region, as Takuma Sasaki raced into an early lead pursued by regular finalist Ryota Kokubun. Both had a poor round four in the F3500-A, with Sasaki even losing his points for the round entirely for an unseen incident, making it a brief six-way battle based on points on the board. A final round second-place for Sasaki — behind Kokubun — was enough to qualify though, and as the only driver to score at least 400 points in more than two rounds.
North America’s qualifying was the tightest of the lot, with the gap between the top two players never more than 29 points at any stage. That saw Canada’s Samuel Cardinal finally qualify for a Nations Cup, having been too young in previous editions, as he beat regular finalist Robert Heck to the spot by just 24 points — despite a blank in the final round. Having also qualified in Manufacturers Cup for Mazda, it’ll be a busy debut for the 18-year old.
Adriano Carrazza stormed through qualifying in South America to make his eighth successive Nations Cup finals, having never missed an event. The only driver in the region to exceed 430pt in any round, he did it four times and achieved such high finishes that even his dropped score was a round win. He’ll be joined by Angel Inostroza, the unlucky runner-up in 2022, as the popular Chilean driver just outpointed Lucas Bonelli.
That leaves the high-scoring EMEA region’s four qualifiers, which saw the same four drivers dominate throughout even if there was just 26pt between the final qualifier and the fifth-placed driver. France’s Thomas Labouteley romped home in first, taking the points lead right from the outset and never surrendering it. 2022 champion Valerio Gallo was next, with Pol Urra — victorious in the Team Spain squad in 2023 — in third and securing the highest single round points finish across all of qualifying. That left Kaj de Bruin to take the final spot.
Unusually, 2025 will have no home drivers in Nations Cup events at any of the three preliminary live events this year, with no representation for American, British, or German racers — though four drivers from the USA have qualified for the Manufacturers Cup. However there are four previous champions in the mix, including two of the three Team Spain racers from 2023, as well as plenty of names that could make a step up this year.
The first live event, and a first opportunity to see the form for 2025, will take place on Saturday June 7, at the former BBC Television Centre in London, and tickets are still available.
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