The final online qualifying rounds for the Nissan PlayStation® GT Academy 2012 went live today. With the chance to win a comprehensive racing driver development programme and an entry into the prestigious Dubai 24 Hours race in a Nissan 370Z in January, 2013 at stake, over 700,000 hopefuls from across Europe have already downloaded the exclusive Gran Turismo® content from PlayStation®Store.

The final two rounds of the GT Academy 2012 qualifying demo are again split into five challenges in each and feature stunning renditions of the Nissan 370Z and Nissan GT-R Black on a variety of circuits and conditions – including cornering at night, an essential skill for an endurance racer. The final challenge – a one-lap time trial on the Motegi Twin Ring short course – will require entrants to put together all the skills honed in the previous eight-round process to produce their fastest lap. The lap times from this final challenge will create the GT Academy ‘leaderboard’ for each territory with the top competitors then being invited to take part in phase two of the competition, live ‘National Finals’ events. The leaderboards will be displayed on eu.gran-turismo.com.

The winners of the national finals will then be invited to the all-action Race Camps at the famous Silverstone circuit in the UK. One winner for Europe and one each from the USA, Germany and Russia (all running standalone GT Academy competitions in 2012) will then be put through an intense and comprehensive Driver Development Programme in preparation for the Dubai 24 Hours.

Anybody with a PS3™ connected to the internet and resident in a participating country can still enter GT Academy 2012 up until 22:59 GMT on Sunday, 24 June (23.59 BST and 00:59 CEST on 25 June). They have to download the specially designed Gran Turismo demo from PlayStation®Store and complete all of the rounds before tackling the final time trial.

To be in with a chance of winning, all entrants to GT Academy 2012 must now complete a registration process at eu.gran-turismo.com where full terms and conditions of entry are available. Residents from 14 European countries (GT Academy Europe includes UK and Ireland, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, Benelux, and Austria, Switzerland and Poland; while Germany and the Russian Federation have standalone competitions) who are over 18 and have a full driving licence and no previous motor sport experience are eligible to enter the competition.

Former GT Academy winners Lucas Ordoñez (Spa) and Jordan Tresson (Fra) will both be in action at this weekend’s famous Le Mans 24 Hours, underlining the credibility and high stakes of the competition. Meanwhile, 2011 winner Jann Mardenborough (UK) is contesting the Blancpain Endurance Series and British GT Championship in a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 in 2012.