Urra breaks through in Milan as Spain claims a Nations Cup 1-2 at Gran Turismo World Series

Round 1 of the 2026 Gran Turismo World Series Nations Cup unfolded on Saturday, May 23, at the Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber in the heart of Milan, Italy. Following the Manufacturers Cup, the spotlight shifted to the Nations Cup, where drivers take to the track as proud representatives of their home country or territory.

A field of 12 elite competitors – comprising the top three finishers from the 2025 Nations Cup along with the highest-ranked drivers from each region in the Online Qualifiers – converged on the Italian city to contest two races in front of a passionate crowd. The first was the Sprint Race, which set the grid for the championship-deciding Grand Final.

All eyes were on defending champion Jose Serrano, the Spaniard who had dominated the previous season with an iron fist. Alongside him stood his compatriot and teammate Pol Urra, as well as Japan’s two-time champion Takuma Miyazono, hungry to reclaim the crown. But perhaps no driver carried more weight of expectation than Italy’s Valerio Gallo – a hometown hero racing in front of his own people, on a night where every cheer in the theater seemed to carry his name.

Sprint Race: Sardegna – Road Track-A, 10 laps

Although no championship points were on the line, the Sprint Race carried enormous importance – its finishing order would determine the starting grid for the Grand Final. The venue was the sweeping Sardegna Road Track, and in a delightful twist of spectacle, the drivers were not piloting modern machinery but a handpicked collection of automotive legends: classic road cars from the golden age of motoring, their BoP carefully adjusted to ensure a level playing field. Watching million-dollar icons like the Jaguar D-Type, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, and the Aston Martin DB3S trading paint and going wheel to wheel was nothing short of mesmerizing.

Spain’s Jose Serrano, aboard the Aston Martin DB3S, and France’s Kylian Drumont, in the Porsche 550 Spyder, shared the front row. The rolling start was clean, but Drumont wasted no time, sweeping past Serrano for the lead before the first corner even arrived. Spain’s Samuel Moreno, driving the Ferrari 500 Mondial, joined the party moments later, slipping past Serrano as well.

Lap 2 delivered the race’s pivotal moment. Serrano and Drumont made contact at the front, and both cars were sent tumbling down the order – Serrano to P9, Drumont to P10. It was carnage at the front, and Miyazono, composed behind the wheel of his Porsche 356 A, inherited the lead without a moment’s hesitation. Further back, the chaos proved a gift for Urra, who vaulted from P8 all the way to P3 in his Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring, while Kaj de Bruin of the Netherlands threaded his Jaguar D-Type from P10 to P4.

By lap 3, Moreno had seized the initiative. He muscled past Miyazono on the front straight to take the lead, while Urra surged by moments later on the back straight, briefly heading the field. Before long, the top three had formed a close, tense unit, opening a 2.0-second gap over the rest of the field. The laps that followed were a captivating chess match among Moreno, Miyazono, and Urra – leads exchanged, lines disputed, not a millimeter of margin wasted.

Meanwhile, the Italian crowd found its voice when Gallo, in the stately Mercedes-Benz S Barker Tourer, passed de Bruin’s D-Type to take P4 on lap 4. He was still some four seconds behind the leaders, but the Tifosi didn’t care – they roared all the same.

When the checkered flag fell, it was Samuel Moreno who took it – an astonishing debut victory at his very first live GTWS event. Urra crossed in 2nd, with Miyazono rounding out the podium in 3rd. Could the rookie Spaniard carry this momentum into the Grand Final and shock the world?

Grand Final: Autodromo Nazionale Monza, 27 laps

The main event unfolded at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, the Temple of Speed, where long straights and low-downforce demands would make every strategic decision count. All 12 drivers climbed into the awe-inspiring Red Bull X2019 Competition – 816 ps, 650 kg, zero restrictions – each car liveried in the colors of its driver’s nation. Three tire compounds were available – softs, mediums, and hards – with all three required to be used. Softs were expected to last around eight laps, mediums up to 14, and hards even longer, though at a significant pace deficit. Speeds on Monza’s iconic straights peaked at 320 km/h.

Moreno led the field away from pole position, with Urra and Miyazono tucked neatly behind through the first lap. The top six all started on medium compound Dunlops – a cautious, calculated opening gambit. But order at the front belied the turbulence brewing in the midfield, and on lap 5 the race came alive. Gallo surged down the front straight to claim P3 from Miyazono, sparking a roar from the stands, and a corner later de Bruin’s X2019 swept past the Japanese driver as well, dropping him to fifth. Just two seconds separated the top six.

Then came the defining moment of the opening phase. On lap 8, race leader Moreno – seemingly in command – lost the car through Curva Parabolica, spinning off the track and plummeting to sixth in an instant. Urra inherited the lead, with de Bruin and Gallo right behind, and suddenly the race had a new complexion entirely. The Sprint Race winner’s afternoon had fallen apart with a single lapse of concentration.

Urra, cool and metronomic, began to build. By lap 11, he had stretched his advantage to 2.3s. But Gallo was relentless, and on lap 13, he muscled past de Bruin through Curva Retifilio to reclaim P2, setting his sights squarely on the race leader. As the pit stop window approached, the battle for the remaining podium positions was fierce – Gallo, de Bruin, Serrano, and Miyazono locked in a four-way fight, barely a second separating them.

Lap 14 proved to be the strategic hinge of the race. Urra, de Bruin, Gallo, and Miyazono all pitted, while Serrano – El Rayo de Granada – elected to stay out, using the undercut opportunity to vault to the race lead. Urra and de Bruin took on soft tires; Gallo and Miyazono took the hards, betting on longevity. Serrano pitted a lap later, also choosing softs. When the dust settled, the running order was Urra, de Bruin, Gallo, Serrano, and Miyazono – with Moreno having worked his way back to P6 on a daring soft-tire strategy, now just a second behind the reigning champion.

With eight laps to go, Gallo and Miyazono made their final stops on lap 19, switching to softs in a last-ditch bid for pace. Urra, Serrano, and de Bruin waited until lap 22 before ducking in for their final sets of hards. But fortune twisted sharply in those final laps. Gallo was handed a half-second track limits penalty that allowed Miyazono to pass him for P4. Then on lap 25, de Bruin received a one-second penalty – gifting Gallo back P3, with Miyazono right behind. One lap later, another penalty for Gallo handed the position back to Miyazono once more.

Then came the heartbreaking finale. On the final lap, Gallo – charging hard and desperate for a podium finish in front of his home crowd – lost control after Turn 3, a wheel dropping off the track and sending his X2019 spinning into the dirt. The theater fell into stunned silence. A dream finish for the Italian stallion had slipped away in the cruelest of fashions.

At the front, there was no such drama. Urra crossed the line to claim his first Nations Cup victory, with Serrano right behind in 2nd, just as they had been at the end of last season. Miyazono completed the podium in 3rd, showcasing once again why he remains the gold standard of Gran Turismo racing.

Said Pol Urra after the race: “In the Sprint Race, I took advantage of some of the incidents that occurred, and I somehow finished in 3rd place. In the Grand Final, I just followed Samuel. I didn’t want to press him – then suddenly he spun, which I didn’t expect, and I had to focus to set the pace. Congratulations to Jose, and Takuma, and also a big applause for Valerio because he did great.”

With Round 1 now in the books, it is Spain that stands tallest. Urra and Serrano have announced themselves once again as the pair to beat, their chemistry and tire management in a class of their own. But with Miyazono lurking and a hungry field yet to show its full hand, the 2026 Nations Cup season promises to be anything but predictable.