2022 Gran Turismo World Series World Finals/GR GT Cup

The Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup portion of the 2022 Gran Turismo World Series World Finals weekend was held on November 24, consisting of two semi-final heat races, a repechage (last-chance qualifier) race, and the Grand Final race.
Note that for this event, the grid numbers are determined by their starting grid.
==Entry List==
The Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup Grand Final consists of 21 top drivers from online Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup championship, plus 3 drivers from regional Toyota-organized events in Southeast Asia (Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup Asia) and Middle East (Toyota Gazoo Racing MENA Esports Cup).
(c) indicates the defending GR GT Cup champion, while (fc) indicates a former champion.
Region 	Driver
Qualified from the Online Championship	Qualified from the Online Championship
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Baptiste Beauvois
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Kylian Drumont
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Marco Busnelli
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Thomas Labouteley
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Valerio Gallo
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Giorgio Mangano
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Quinten Jehoul
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Jose Serrano
Europe/Middle East/Africa 	Will Murdoch
Central/South Americas 	Lucas Bonelli
Central/South Americas 	Adriano Carrazza
Central/South Americas 	Igor Fraga
North America 	Robert Heck
North America 	Cyrus Cross
North America 	Dean Heldt
Asia 	Takuma Miyazono (fc)
Asia 	Rikuto Kobayashi
Asia 	Takuma Sasaki
Asia 	Kanata Kawakami
Oceania 	Guy Barbara
Oceania 	Matthew McEwen
Qualified from Regional Championships 	Qualified from Regional Championships
GR GT Cup Asia Winners 	Nathayos Sirigaya
GR GT Cup Asia Winners 	Andika Rama Maulana
GR MENA Esports Cup Winner 	Khalid Al Maraghi
===Notes===
==Semi-Finals==
The semi-final rounds of the Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup are divided into two races with twelve drivers each, with qualifying session determining which drivers would compete in the race A or race B. The top four drivers will advance to the grand finals, with drivers in the fifth to tenth being drawn into the repechage (last-chance qualifier) race.
A qualifying session to decide which driver would compete in which heat was held, but it was not shown on the stream.
Both races featured drivers using the outside line of the some of the banked turns (primarily before the bridge) in a way that requires driving close to the wall, to which there were accusations of wall-riding. A similar wall-riding controversy had previously occurred during the second Manufacturers Cup race of that year's online season 2, which resulted in scores for that round being annulled in certain regions and a race scheduled for Blue Moon Bay Speedway - Infield B being moved to Kyoto Driving Park - Yamagiwa.
===Group A===
; Qualifying
Pos	Driver 	Time
1 	Jose Serrano 	01:06.421
2 	Igor Fraga 	01:06.497
3 	Will Murdoch 	01:06.599
4 	Takuma Miyazono 	01:06.627
5 	Giorgio Mangano 	01:06.684
6 	Takuma Sasaki 	01:06.709
7 	Kanata Kawakami 	01:06.735
8 	Thomas Labouteley	01:06.815
9 	Nathayos Sirigaya	01:06.835
10 	Kylian Drumont 	No time
11 	Quinten Jehoul 	No time
12 	Cyruss Cross 	No time
; Race
In what would be the first problem to plague the event, the initial start was aborted because the number of laps was set incorrectly to be 15 laps instead of 25 laps as intended.
Pos	No	Driver 	Time 	Finals Grid
1 	5 	Giorgio Mangano 	28:32.030	1 (GF)
2 	2 	Igor Fraga 	+02.634 	3 (GF)
3 	7 	Kanata Kawakami 	+05.026 	5 (GF)
4 	3 	Will Murdoch 	+05.041 	7 (GF)
5 	1 	Jose Serrano 	+05.651 	1 (R)
6 	4 	Takuma Miyazono 	+07.312 	3 (R)
7 	8 	Thomas Labouteley	+11.218 	5 (R)
8 	10	Kylian Drumont 	+12.612 	7 (R)
9 	9 	Nathayos Sirigaya	+12.989 	9 (R)
10 	6 	Takuma Sasaki 	+19.100 	11 (R)
11 	12	Cyruss Cross 	+30.069 	Out
12 	11	Quinten Jehoul 	+30.299 	Out
* In the finals grid row, (GF) indicates grand finals, (R) indicates repechage.
* Bold indicates drivers that advanced to next round.
* Italics indicates drivers that advanced to repechage round.
===Group B===
; Qualifying
Pos	Driver 	Time
1 	Lucas Bonelli 	01:06.461
2 	Baptiste Beauvois 	01:06.550
3 	Robert Heck 	01:06.624
4 	Adriano Carrazza 	01:06.633
5 	Dean Heldt 	01:06.695
6 	Andika Rama Maulana	01:06.730
7 	Khalid Al Maraghi 	01:06.812
8 	Marco Busnelli 	01:06.824
9 	Guy Barbara 	01:07.422
10 	Valerio Gallo 	No time
11 	Rikuto Kobyashi 	No time
12 	Matthew McEwen 	No time
; Race
Pos	No	Driver 	Time 	Finals Grid
1 	2 	Baptiste Beauvois 	28:35.138 	2 (GF)
2 	6 	Andika Rama Maulana	+00.732 	4 (GF)
3 	1 	Lucas Bonelli 	+05.610 	6 (GF)
4 	3 	Robert Heck 	+07.116 	8 (GF)
5 	5 	Dean Heldt 	+07.144 	2 (R)
6 	10	Valerio Gallo 	+13.107(+3s penalty)Gallo was penalized 3 seconds after the Semi-Finals B race for a late race contact. Due to the time difference however, this did not affect his finish standings.	4 (R)
7 	8 	Marco Busnelli 	+16.165 	6 (R)
8 	9 	Guy Barbara 	+16.240 	8 (R)
9 	12	Matthew McEwen 	+16.285 	10 (R)
10 	11	Rikuto Kobyashi 	+19.834 	12 (R)
11 	7 	Khalid Al Maraghi 	+23.406 	Out
12 	4 	Adriano Carrazza 	+33.884 	Out
* In the finals grid row, (GF) indicates grand finals, (R) indicates repechage.
* Bold indicates drivers that advanced to next round.
* Italics indicates drivers that advanced to repechage round.
==Repechage Round==
The Repechage Round is the last-chance qualifier for drivers finishing fifth to tenth in each region's regional finals, with the top three finishers advancing to the Grand Finals.
; Starting Line-Up
Pos	Driver 	Previous Finish
1 	Jose Serrano 	5th in Semi-Final A
2 	Dean Heldt 	5th in Semi-Final B
3 	Takuma Miyazono 	6th in Semi-Final A
4 	Valerio Gallo 	6th in Semi-Final B
5 	Thomas Labouteley	7th in Semi-Final A
6 	Marco Busnelli 	7th in Semi-Final B
7 	Kylian Drumont 	8th in Semi-Final A
8 	Guy Barbara 	8th in Semi-Final B
9 	Nathayos Sirigaya	9th in Semi-Final A
10 	Matthew McEwen 	9th in Semi-Final B
11 	Takuma Sasaki 	10th in Semi-Final A
12 	Rikuto Kobyashi 	10th in Semi-Final B
;Race
During the start of what turned to be a chaotic race (primarily due to an ill-suited car/track combination), Gallo suffered from a steering wheel failure (described as involving the handbrake button)Valerio Gallo post-race tweet: "...[in Repechage, technical difficulties (handbrake stuck after the standing start)..."] and effectively stalled, while Heldt had a false start, resulting in an automated false-start penalty issued by the game. Additionally, Labouteley parked with 3 laps to go for unknown reasons.
Pos	No	Driver 	Time 	Finals Grid
1 	7 	Kylian Drumont 	18:43.872 	9th (GF)
2 	11	Takuma Sasaki 	+00.546 	10th (GF)
3 	6 	Marco Busnelli 	+00.596 	11th (GF)
4 	2 	Dean Heldt 	+01.083 	12th (GF)
5 	12	Rikuto Kobyashi 	+02.297 	Out
6 	3 	Takuma Miyazono 	+02.854 	Out
7 	1 	Jose Serrano 	+03.501 	Out
8 	8 	Guy Barbara 	+04.890 	Out
9 	10	Matthew McEwen 	+07.139 	Out
10 	9 	Nathayos Sirigaya	+09.805 	Out
11 	5 	Thomas Labouteley	DNF (parked) 	Out
12 	4 	Valerio Gallo 	DNF (hardware)	Out
* Bold indicates drivers that advanced to next round.
==Grand Finals==
The Grand Finals determines the winner of the Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup in a winner-takes-all endurance race.
; Starting Line-Up
Pos	Driver 	Previous Finish
1 	Giorgio Mangano 	1st in Semi-Final A
2 	Baptiste Beauvois 	1st in Semi-Final B
3 	Igor Fraga 	2nd in Semi-Final A
4 	Andika Rama Maulana	2nd in Semi-Final B
5 	Kanata Kawakami 	3rd in Semi-Final A
6 	Lucas Bonelli 	3rd in Semi-Final B
7 	Will Murdoch 	4th in Semi-Final A
8 	Robert Heck 	4th in Semi-Final B
9 	Kylian Drumont 	1st in Repechage
10 	Takuma Sasaki 	2nd in Repechage
11 	Marco Busnelli 	3rd in Repechage
12 	Dean Heldt 	4th in Repechage
; Race
In an effort to replace the failed wheel on what was Gallo's Repechage seat (to be used by Maulana), the start of the race was postponed by a few minutes, during which viewers saw a recap of the Showdown. Despite this effort, Maulana suffered a game crash just after start, knocking him out of the race.Andika Rama Maulana post-race tweet: "...then on Grand Finals the game decided to stop themself, so had to DNF, same rig as [Gallo, same problem."]
Igor Fraga maintained a dominant lead to win the 2022 Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup title, being the first South American player to do so.
Pos	No	Driver 	Time
1 	3 	Igor Fraga 	44:28.252
2 	9 	Kylian Drumont 	+16.249
3 	10	Takuma Sasaki 	+19.742
4 	2 	Baptiste Beauvois 	+20.968
5 	7 	Will Murdoch 	+21.503
6 	11	Marco Busnelli 	+21.856
7 	1 	Giorgio Mangano 	+24.904
8 	5 	Kanata Kawakami 	+29.024
9 	6 	Lucas Bonelli 	+37.024
10 	8 	Robert Heck 	+40.220
11 	12	Dean Heldt 	+45.914
12 	4 	Andika Rama Maulana	DNF (software)
Fastest Lap: Baptiste Beauvois (1:25.750)
==Winners==
Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup Champion	Igor Fraga
==Notes==
==External links==
*Race Report: Drama at Every Turn in the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GT Cup 2022! - gran-turismo.com
Category:Esports race reports