The 2026 GT2 European Championship season ended on a Maserati high, with the Trident cars securing pole positions and claiming victories and podium finishes in both races held on Sunday at Portimao.
The SR Motorsport by SchnitzelAlm duo also claimed the top step of the podium in Race 1, whilst Ethan Gialdini/Mikkel Njor clinched the overall championship title, with David Thilenius/Jay Mo Hartling securing the PRO/AM class title despite a collision in the closing stages of Race 2.
RACE 1
With the GT World Challenge taking place on Saturday evening, both of the GT2 season’s final races were held on Sunday. The Algarve circuit hosted a fiercely contested first race in the morning, which ended with a dramatic victory for Wilhelm Kuhne and Moritz Wiskirchen.
The SR Motorsport by Schnitzelam duo caught everyone off guard when the safety car was called out around the halfway point of the race to clear the track of Lawrence Tomlinson’s Ginetta, which had come to a halt due to a driveshaft failure.
Up until that point, Maserati’s dominance had been virtually unchallenged, with Antoine Potty – making his return in the #6 i4Race car following the injury he sustained at Misano – having maintained the lead after a strong start from pole position, followed by the Ginetta -CMR #3 driven by Njor, who managed to leapfrog the LP Racing #18 Maserati driven by Niccolò Pirri, though Pirri regained second place shortly afterwards.
With Philippe Prette’s #1 Maserati rapidly climbing back up to seventh position, all that remained was to wait for the flurry of pitstops to see how the standings would unfold once refuelling and driver changes (for those who needed to make them) were complete.
#6 I4Race, Maserati GT2: Antoine Potty
Photo by: SRO
Incredibly, the safety car came out just as the #110 Mercedes had already completed its pit stop, leaving Wiskirchen effectively in first place. Here, however, race control also played its part, as the safety car was sent onto the track in front of Potty’s Maserati, losing a great deal of time before allowing the field to file past and rejoin behind the AMG.
The restart took place with just eight minutes remaining on the clock, and Wiskirchen did brilliantly to push hard and build up the necessary lead to cross the finish line triumphantly under the chequered flag, also taking home victory in the PRO/AM class.
Potty tried to make up ground, but by then it was too late, and second place overall was rather a bitter pill to swallow, even though the Frenchman celebrated victory in the SILVER class.
Third in the running was the Maserati driven by father and son Philippe and Louis Prette, who are second in the PRO/AM class – the same position achieved by Pirri/Stefan Rosina in SILVER with the #18 Maserati, currently fourth in the running.
Njor and Gialdini simply needed to finish their Ginetta in the top five to be crowned overall champions (third in SILVER), followed by the #89 KTM-RTR Projects car driven by Mraz and Marioneck, winners of the MASTERS class.
On the PRO/AM podium, third place went to the #85 Maserati driven by Laura Van Der Hengel and Sarah Bovy (Iron Dames by SP Racing), whilst Mauro Calamia and Roberto Pampanini finished 10th in the #7 Maserati from Dinamic Motorsport, behind the Mercedes driven by De Martin and Montserrat (NM Racing #115) and Thilenius and Hartling, who incurred a 10-second penalty for a double overtaking manoeuvre carried out on the restart from the safety car, having exceeded the track limits.
Thomas Yu Lee’s Maserati (LP Racing #8) finished only 11th, but he can still be pleased with his podium finish in the MASTERS class despite a difficult race.
Safety Car
Photo by: SRO
RACE 2
The second and final race of the Portuguese weekend and of the season got underway in the afternoon, with the Prette family’s Maserati taking centre stage. Polesitter Louis’s first stint was superb, as he built up a significant lead over his rivals before handing the wheel over to his father Philippe, whilst remaining in the lead even after the pitstops.
Whilst the first part of the race offered few thrills – apart from an incredible start by Hartling, who moved up from the third row of the grid to second place by overtaking Kofler’s KTM and the Maseratis driven by Rosina and Potty – it was the second half that provided a couple of nail-biting moments, including another safety car intervention.
This time, the safety car was needed to clear Max Grip’s #898 KTM-MZR from the gravel, after he was violently hit at the hairpin by a reckless overtaking manoeuvre from Ondrej Rokos (Mercedes-RTR Project #294), who subsequently received the inevitable drive-through penalty.
The race restarted with just 60 seconds remaining on the clock, and P. Prette pushed hard to deservedly win the race and the PRO/AM class ahead of Rosina/Pirri, who were celebrating their victory in the SILVER class, where they overtook Njor/Gialdini’s Ginetta-CMR #3 with a final pass to finish third overall.
Potty’s fourth place overall, however, was a bitter pill to swallow; he was forced to serve a 15-second penalty at the pitstop for exceeding track limits too many times in the early stages of the race, but still managed to secure third place in the SILVER class with the i4Race Maserati.
Also in the top five, following a fine comeback, is the #27 Lamborghini-CMR driven by Berthet/Dimitrov, followed by Yu Lee’s Maserati, which won the MASTERS class, and the Mercedes driven by De Martin/Montserrat.
Pampanini and Calamia were also handed a 10-second penalty for contact in the closing stages, dropping them to ninth place behind the KTM driven by Mraz and Marioneck and ahead of the Ginetta driven by Tomlison and Simpson, which was involved in a collision in the closing stages with Thilenius’s Mercedes – an incident that sent both cars spinning, though it did not prevent the SR-SchnitzelAlm duo from securing the PRO/AM title.
The Iron Dames’ Maserati, driven by Bovy and Van Den Hengel, finished 14th.
PHOTO GALLERY – The best images from Portimão
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