David Coulthard has set himself up for quite the challenge this coming Monday. Behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS Gullwing, the former-F1 driver will take to the track at a "secret location" somewhere in Europe, in the hopes of beating some unique opponents.

His would-be challengers are not up and coming karters, or feeder series hopefuls. Instead, he's taking on some of the best Gran Turismo 5 players, who will try and beat his time from the real world in their virtual environments.

In collaboration with Sony and Polyphony Digital, the winner can secure himself a visit to this year's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix. Here, Coulthard describes the challenge in more depth.

The battle will take place (for the gamers, at least) at Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands. It will be streamed live, with pre-race coverage courtesy of BBC commentator Martin Brundle.

There are 24 players hoping to compete against Coulthard, with qualifying heats filtering the top six. Those will then get the chance to try and beat DC. As the man himself mentioned in the video, there's every possibility that they could succeed. There has often been debate about how close to real life the simulators can get, and as they grow more and more realistic, David will have his work cut out for him.

This is not the first time virtual reality has been used to find expert drivers. Way back in 2009, we took a look at the GT Academy, where back then Gran Turismo 5 players were whittled down to participate in the 24 Hours of Dubai.

Coverage of the Mercedes-Benz Driving Event kicks off at 3pm, with DC's lap scheduled for around twenty minutes later. Laptimes and a leaderboard will be posted after the event for any Gran Turismo owners who want to try and match the times.