No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes wins GTWC EU Portimao finale as Gold and Bronze Cup champions are crowned - Verstappen Mercedes finishes ninth after penalty
The No.17 Team Getspeed Mercedes secured victory at the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC EU) Portimao finale, in a stand-out performance, with Gold and Bronze Cup champions coronated. Meanwhile the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes' race was disrupted by a penalty, with a possible podium finish turned into a ninth place finish.
As it happened
After the red lights were on for what seemed like ages, the final race of the 2026 GTWC season started off perfectly, with Alessio Picariello, starting the race for the pole-sitting No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche retaining the lead.
It was a Porsche 1-2 soon, when Thomas Preining, driving the first stint for the No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, went past Maximilian Gotz's No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes. Meanwhile it was the opposite of the for the sister Boutsen VDS car, the Gold class entered No.10, with Robin Knutsson dropping like a stone down the order, falling all the way to 25th early on.
It was a disastrous start for a small number of cars, including the No.222 2seas Mercedes, that was spun round, the No.96 Rutronik Lamborghini that suffered a puncture as a result of contact and fell to last, as well as the No.46 Team WRT BMW, which Valentino Rossi had to bring to the pits after lap one with an issue.
Battles were happening all through the field, with an especially good one for the Bronze class lead, as well as Gotz trying to win back second from Preining, before the race was neutralized by a short Full Course Yellow, courtesy of the No.45 Rinaldi Ferrari spinning out of the race, after contact with the No.21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Oliver Söderström.
Amidst all the action perhaps the biggest standout was Eduardo Coseteng in the No.65 HRT Ford, who, having started last, after his team's Silver Pole efforts were erased, had gone from 61st to 30th in just over 20 minutes!
A bit after that, there was a spin for the No.50 Ferrari of Lilou Wadoux, caused by contact with Jordan Pepper's No.32 Team WRT BMW, that dropped her to 22nd, after running in sixth early on. Pepper would receive a drive-through penalty for the incident.
Ben Barnicoat meanwhile, driving the opening stint for the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes, showed determination in what was a vastly improved car setup-wise, finding himself in ninth, after the opening half hour.
Around this part of the race, the front three started to leave Arjun Maini's No.64 HRT Ford behind, with a gap of over two seconds created.
Not much changed up until the window for driver changes opened, with Preining in the No.80 Porsche the first of the leaders to pit at the end of lap 33, with his seat taken by Ricardo Feller.
Picariello alongside fifth place Maro Engel in the No.48 Winward Mercedes pitted on the very next lap, with the former's Porsche taken over by Dorian Boccolacci and the latter's by Luca Stolz, with the No.2 still ahead of the No.80, despite Feller and Boccolacci going side to side for a moment.
However the lead did change hands, as Team GetSpeed performed the overcut with massive success thanks to Gotz's efforts, with the No.17 Mercedes grabbing the lead after its first pitstop, now with Ralf Aron behind the wheel.
Meanwhile amongst the losers after the first round of scheduled pitstops was the No.64 HRT Ford, which fell from fourth to seventh.
They lost out to the No.48 Mercedes, the No.3 Verstappen Mercedes, with Chris Lulham -now driving in place of Barnicoat- performing an excellent overtake around the outside of Thomas Drouet, to get past the Ford and the No.59 Garage 59 McLaren, during the pitstop cycle.
The latter, with Joseph Loake behind the wheel, came alive during that time, eventually getting past Stolz's Mercedes in a beautiful and brave manuever around the outside of turn one, to get up to fourth.
He also started putting pressure to the two Porsches who were struggling for pace, having fallen to three seconds behind the leading No.17 Mercedes, with the five car group, that included Lulham's Verstappen Mercedes being the source of action around the halfway mark.
50 laps in, we had an accident that neutralised the race, with the No.54 Dinamic Porsche and the No.9 Pure Rxcing Porsche colliding in the run in to turn 13. A long FCY was in order that turned into the first safety car of the race.
A bit more than 15 minutes later the field was bunched up, the track cleared and action resumed. The No.17 Mercedes retained the lead, with the No.2 Porsche following, but again it was the No.59 McLaren on the move, with Loake getting immediately past the No.80 Porsche of Feller.
At the same time the battle between Luca Stolz and Chris Lulham for fifth, ended in disaster, as the latter dived up the inside of the No.48 Mercedes and spun it round, getting himself a drive-through penalty, while Stolz fell to 36th.
Next up during a chaotic phase was a puncture for Alex Aka's No.99 Tresor Attempto Audi, whilst battling all over the field was fierce.
The No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche however still struggled for pace, allowing Ralf Aron's No.17 Mercedes to quickly build a gap of over four seconds up front, with Boccolacci evidently holding up Loake's McLaren.
The battle was resolved shortly before the final round of pitstops, with Loake and the two Porsches going three-wide at the start/finish straight starting lap 65, the McLaren once again getting round the outside of Boccolacci, who also lost out to Feller's No.80 car.
With a little over 50 minutes to go the leaders pitted for the second and final time. Fabian Schiller went in for the leading No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes, that kept the lead, after Gotz built an enormous gap of over six seconds prior to him pitting.
In second was Bastian Buus for the No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, which jumped the No.59 Garage 59 McLaren of -now- Jack Hawksworth, which seemed to have its rear diffuser loose after pitting.
He eventually lost third to the No.2 Boutsen VDS of Morris Schuring, with the issue costing the McLaren in pace, as the top five was rounded out by the No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari of Frederik Schandorff, leading its Gold class.
Of course all eyes were on Max Verstappen, who finally drove the No.3 Mercedes, although the drive-through penalty Lulham got, made sure he would not be fighting for a place on the podium.
As the clock was ticking towards 35 minutes to go, another interruption occured, with a duo of stranded cars, them being the No.96 Rutronik Lamborghini and the No.46 Team WRT BMW, which retired with suspension damage.
A FCY was called, which turned into the second safety car of the race, with Schiller's lead out front immediately erased. 10 laps later, action resumed, with the No.17 Mercedes retaining the lead easily, as there was a backmarker between Schiller and second place Buus.
Schiller had the necessary pace still though, building a nice ''cushion'' gap of two seconds to the No.80 Porsche, whilst further behind, Max Verstappen was making progress, going from 19th to 16th in quick succession.
Behind runaway leader Schiller, action was frantic, with the Gold Cup championship lead changing hands, as well as other battles ongoing, with Verstappen a key part of it, the Dutchman getting opportunistic, winning three places in two corners with six minutes to go, to find himself up in 10th.
He would not finish the race there however, managing to also grab ninth from the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari of Arthur Leclerc, a place he would keep until the chequered flag. But come the end of the day it was all about the No.17 Team GetSpeed Mercedes, as Fabian Schiller brought the car home, to secure the team's first win of the season.
Bastian Buus followed in second, more than four seconds behind, to secure another podium for the Sprint Cup championship-winning No.80 Lionspeed GP, with the No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Morris Schuring rounding out the podium.
In a dramatic finish, the Endurance Gold Cup was won by the No.998 ROWE Racing BMW crew of Ugo de Wilde, Jens Klingmann and Tim Tramnitz, with class winners on the day, the No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari losing out by only three points.
Bronze Cup honours went to Kessel Racing's No.74 Ferrari, with Dennis Marschall and Dustin Blattner Overall champions, with the latter the sole Endurance champion.
Results of GTWC EU Portimao Race - Top 10 overall
1st No.17 Team GetSpeed Mercedes (Schiller, Gotz, Aron)
2nd No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche (Buus, Feller, Preining)
3rd No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche (Boccolacci, Schuring, Picariello)
4th No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari (Schandorff, Ebdrup, Birch) - Gold winners
5th No.30 Team WRT BMW (Montenegro, Lismont, Cordeel) - Silver winners
6th No.59 Garage 59 McLaren (Loake, Hawksworth, Macdonald)
7th No.998 ROWE Racing BMW (Klingmann, Tramnitz, De Wilde)
8th No.6 GetSpeed Bartone Mercedes (Panis, Gazeau, Bartone)
9th No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes (Verstappen, Lulham, Barnicoat)
10th No.50 AF Corse Ferrari (Leclerc, Wadoux, Costa)
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