Max Verstappen, Chris Lulham, and Ben Barnicoat finished ninth in the GT World Challenge Europe season finale at Portimao. The #3 Verstappen Racing entry was penalized after Lulham tipped the championship-winning #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Lucas Auer, Maro Engel, and Luca Stolz into a spin shortly after a safety car restart.
Following a drive-through penalty, Verstappen put on a late-race charge, climbing from 24th to ninth in the final 45 minutes.
The race began strongly for the 2 Seas Motorsport-operated Mercedes-AMG GT3. Having suffered from set-up issues during qualifying, the car proved significantly more competitive in race trim with the pace much closer to the front-runners.
Barnicoat made up ground right from the start. Following a brief Full Course Yellow (FCY) 20 minutes into the race, the Lexus IMSA SportsCar Championship regular passed the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi, Nicki Thiim, and Ross Gunn to move into 10th position.
He subsequently gained two further positions when Charles Weerts in the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo spun Lilou Wadoux in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.
Barnicoat moved ahead of the Ferrari immediately, and picked up another spot when Weerts was handed a drive-through penalty for the incident, for which the Belgian promptly apologized to his team over the radio.
Barnicoat brought the car into the pits from eighth position to hand over to Lulham. Verstappen Racing opted for a long first stint, executing an overcut strategy that paid off.
Lulham re-joined in a net seventh position and immediately passed the #64 HRT Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo of Thomas Drouet with a spectacular move around the outside at Turn 7.
Having improved to sixth, Lulham set a series of fast laps to close the gap on the leading quintet. A safety car, triggered when two Porsches ended up in the gravel, erased the remaining margin.
At the restart, Lulham attempted to gain further ground, but a move into Turn 8 on Luca Stolz in the #48 Winward “Mamba” ended in contact, spinning the championship-winning No. 48 Winward Mercedes around.
Lulham served the resulting drive-through penalty before handing the car over to Max Verstappen. The four-time Formula 1 world champion took the wheel with 45 minutes remaining, returning to the track in 24th position.
With the car down in 24th, Verstappen set about mounting a recovery drive. A second safety car—caused by the simultaneous stoppage of the #96 Rutronik Racing Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Patric Niederhauser, Marco Mapelli, and Luca Engstler and an off for the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Neil Verhagen, Max Hesse, and Valentino Rossi—further compressed the field.
The incident brought a disappointing end to a difficult weekend for the #46 WRT BMW of MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi. After starting from the back of the field due to the cancellation of Rossi’s primary qualifying lap, the car was forced to pit at the end of the opening lap of the race and finished in the gravel.
Verstappen restarted from 19th and swiftly began carving through the field. Resistance from several non-Pro entries was limited as they prioritized their respective class battles. With 17 minutes remaining, Verstappen had moved up to 15th, directly behind a train of Pro-class cars.
Verstappen then cleared six six Pro entries within 10 minutes to move up to ninth. In one sequence, he used the battling cars ahead to pass three Pro entries in one move.
Once through the group, the gap to the leaders was too large to make further progress. However, Verstappen completed his stint with 15 positions gained in 45 minutes of racing.
GetSpeed secures maiden overall victory
After several near-misses, GetSpeed finally secured its maiden overall GT World Challenge Europe victory. Maximilian Gotz, Ralf Aron, and Fabian Schiller drove the #17 Mercedes-AMG GT3 to victory for the Adam Osieka-led team.
The red-and-white AMG set the pace over the race distance, taking victory ahead of the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) shared by Ricardo Feller, Thomas Preining, and Bastian Buus, and the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Morris Schuring, Dorian Boccolacci, and Alessio Picariello.
The opening stint was dominated by the two leading Porsches, with Preining defending P2 under heavy pressure from Gotz. Following the first round of pitstops, an out-lap battle between Preining and Boccolacci cost both cars time, allowing Aron to exit the pits cleanly ahead of both cars.
Aron, who missed a significant portion of the season recovering from a major crash at the Bathurst 12 Hour in February, steadily built a lead following the first safety car restart while battles raged behind him.
Among the standout performances was Joseph Loake in the #59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo shared with Dean MacDonald and Oliver Hawksworth. Loake executed three overtakes around the outside of Turn 1.
“That was a move my teammate Dean MacDonald recommended to me, but I couldn’t try it until the race,” the 21-year-old said. Despite the moves, damage to the rear diffuser eventually dropped the McLaren back to sixth at the finish.
A second safety car wiped out a 10-second lead for GetSpeed, but Schiller remained untroubled at the final restart, pulling away in the closing minutes to cross the line 5.062 seconds clear of the Lionspeed Porsche.
The 2027 GT World Challenge Europe season is scheduled to commence on April 18 with the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000km at Le Castellet. Verstappen has expressed his intention to compete in the 24 Hours of Spa, taking place from June 24–27, 2027.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
