Gran Turismo 5 Signature Edition winner revealed

This website requires Flash Player 7 or higher. It looks like you do not have this installed. Visit the Adobe website to download the latest version of player.. JavaScript needs to be enabled on your PC in order for you to view this content. Please enable JavaScript and try again. Young Spaniard claims the coveted first prize in the Mercedes-Benz GT5 Driving Challenge. Marco Calvo, a 24-year-old student from Madrid in Spain, celebrated becoming the proud owner of a stunning 6.3 litre, 571hp Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG on 12 July 2011 at Austria's Red Bull Ring race track. The 317km/h supercar was the prize at stake for 15 PlayStation 3 gamers at the Mercedes-Benz GT5 Driving Challenge. In the end, Marco's triumph came in a thrilling winner-takes-all drag race against his closest rival, Guy Foster from Ireland. The event marked the thrilling finale of a competition that began in November 2010 with the release of Gran Turismo 5 for PS3. The limited edition Signature Edition version of the game contained a code to enter a competition that would see players from across 22 countries try to gain an advantage in GT5's B-Spec team management mode and become one of 15 winners to have a chance of taking home the SLS. Having arrived in Austria at the start of the week, the 15 hopefuls faced an initial challenge involving five-way racing on PS3 in the GT5 version of the SLS AMG. Tuesday saw the action shift to the revamped Red Bull Ring in Southern Austria for some intense real-life action. The 15 were greeted by a fleet of eight identical silver SLS AMG cars that they went on to drive in a series of challenges under the watchful eyes of former Formula One driver David Coulthard and five-time DTM Champion Bernd Schneider. The challenges were set and monitored by AMG's Driving Academy instructors. The four participants with the highest scores then entered the dramatic Drag Strip semi-finals and final. With the possibility to accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 3.8 seconds in the SLS, the contestants had to use the awesome stopping power of the car to come to a complete halt in a marked area at the end of the start-finish straight. Marco held his nerve to triumph by a fraction of a second in the final race. One Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG will now be put on the production line in Stuttgart with his name on it and transported to Spain to be presented to the worthy winner. "I am really, really happy," said an ecstatic Marco. "These have been two fantastic days. To drive the SLS here has been amazing. It is so powerful and the handling is so good, but, of course, I knew that from GT5! Now I need to get onto my insurance company, and start thinking about a garage, but I can certainly imagine myself driving around Madrid in the SLS!" Formula One superstar David Coulthard was generous in his praise of the gamers: "It's a wonderful prize, but all the participants have worked hard on the game, earned the right to be here and driven really well," commented the winner of 13 Formula One Grands Prix who races an AMG Mercedes C-Class in the DTM series. "I spent time following them around the handling course this morning and they clearly have good spatial awareness and a feeling for vehicle dynamics. It doesn't happen too often that you can win a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, but this is fantasy meets reality. What Marco has got is a great high performance car that really is genuinely just as good for everyday use as it is on the track. He should have a lot of fun with it." And with a red SLS AMG gracing the cover of Gran Turismo 5, the starting point of Marco's journey to own his very own supercar, what colour is he going to have? "I think it is going to be black or silver." Make sure you're always kept up to speed - don't miss a chance to win more incredible prizes by keeping an eye on eu.playstation.com/psn/competitions.