Kylian Drumont took victory in the second round of the 2026 Gran Turismo World Series Nations Cup competition, from Polyphony Digital’s Tokyo studio.
A contentious penalty for Spanish driver and runner-up in the season’s opening round, José Serrano, on the final lap dropped him out of contention and helped seal victory for France.
Before the main race, Drumont was on pole for a sprint event in ‘90s and ‘00s sports cars (and one supercar in the form of a Ferrari F40, driven by Guy Barbara).
It was eight laps around Suzuka with new track branding, which has been present at in-person Gran Turismo events since 2023, but strangely is not yet in the home version of Gran Turismo 7.
The French driver, behind the wheel of a Honda NSX, led from the start and kept that position until the end, despite pressure from Serrano.
That meant Drumont secured pole position for the main race in the Gran Turismo Red Bull X2019 Competitions cars around Deep Forest Raceway reverse.
Main race
The top three positions remained the same in the early stages, with Italy’s Valerio Gallo in third behind Serrano and Drumont, until the Spanish driver took the lead on the fifth lap.
This trio would remain close, Drumont and Gallo presumed to be saving tyres and fuel, while the reigning champion cut through the air up front.
Just behind, standings leader before this round, Pol Urra, dived to the inside of Ryota Kokubun at the hairpin to take fourth on lap six.
It was a divergence in tyre strategies that split up the front pack, with each driver required to use three tyre compounds across the race.
All of the top five entered the lane on lap 19, switching from medium to hard compound tyres, apart from Gallo, who opted for the soft.
He made light work of the hard-equipped runners to take the lead, but knowing that he had to run the slower tyres in the final stint.
At the final pitstop, with Italy out in front, Drumont jumped Serrano, saving fuel earlier on, resulting in a short service time. However, five laps from home, Spain would ease by France for second, the two drivers trying to close in on the lead.
They would reach Gallo with two laps left, the Italian defending valiantly against two cars with quicker tyres. There was a slight nudge between the front too, sending Gallo wide, with Serrano and Drumont sneaking through.
It was for this move that Serrano picked up the aforementioned penalty, the one-second mandated lift dropping him to third.
Then compatriot Samuel Moreno pulled off an audacious move around the outside, the loss of momentum helping Kokubun claim fourth.
Earlier the same day, Takuma Sasaki won the Manufacturers Cup race for Porsche and a new ‘evo’ spec version of the Mazda RX-Vision GT3 car was unveiled. The upcoming Caterham Seven was also teased.
