The 2026 Gran Turismo World Series is back this weekend, with Round 2 broadcasting from Polyphony Digital’s Tokyo studio on Saturday, August 15. The Manufacturers Cup gets things started at 13:00 UTC, with the Nations Cup following at 15:00 UTC, and you can watch both streams right here. This is the round that effectively replaces the cancelled Abu Dhabi opener, and it’s a very different animal from the Milan season opener back in May. There’s no venue, no tickets, and no crowd. In fact, there’s not even any live racing. The event was actually recorded behind closed doors at Polyphony’s studio a few weeks ago, and the “live streams” going out this weekend are replays of that session. It’s the first time the World Series has aired pre-recorded races since the championship was forced online during the pandemic years of 2020-2022. Table of Contents Manufacturers Cup — 13:00 UTC The Manufacturers Cup opens the show at 13:00 UTC, and it brings a complete driver changeover. Where Milan fielded each team’s Europe/Middle East/Africa representative, Tokyo hands the cars to the Asia-Oceania drivers. That means every driver who scored Manufacturers points in Milan is now watching from the sidelines. Porsche’s drive passes from Jose Serrano to Takuma “Takuan” Sasaki, Ferrari’s from record-breaking rookie Maximilian Kroll to third-year representative Jun Hashima, and Mercedes-AMG’s from Jack Balding to Kojiro Sasaki. Porsche leads Ferrari by a single point at the top of the table, with AMG two back, so there’s plenty for the new trio of drivers to protect. There are few names worth watching. Kanata Kawakami (a two-time champion with Lexus, and known as “Mr Lexus” for good reason) is one of the elder statesman of this grid. Audi debuts 18-year-old Sota Moriyama alongside its point from Milan, and Mazda’s Ryota Kokubun is the