GT World Challenge Europe Preview: Brands Hatch

Written by Marios Gantzoudis, Edited by Pranav Sharma

Credit: SRO/JEP

The 2026 GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC EU) season continues this weekend, with the Sprint Cup beginning at the historic Brands Hatch venue, with two high-pressure, one-hour races ready to unfold. 

After a spectacular Endurance Cup opener at Paul Ricard, in which Comtoyou’s No.7 Aston Martin ‘stole’ the win at the last moment from the No.48 Mercedes, the championship focus shifts over to the Sprint Cup, with Brands Hatch kicking it off. 

A mainstay since 2014 (barring the 2020 pandemic year), the iconic circuit will host its 12th GTWC EU Race and remains the first Sprint Cup round for a fifth straight year. 

Entry list

As is always the case with Brands Hatch, the Bronze class entrants will be absent due to capacity issues and as such, the field will consist of 34 cars, split into the Pro, Gold and Silver classes.

Notable observations include WRT being the only team to enter three BMW M4 GT3 Evos into the Pro class, with the defending champions having the joint-most entries in general with four, alongside AF Corse’s four Ferrari 296 GT3 Evos.

You can view the full entry list here.

Credit: SRO/JEP

Championship standings 

After the thrilling opening round at Paul Ricard, Comtoyou leads the Overall/Pro Cup standings after the No.7’s victory with 33 points, followed up by Winward, which sits at 25 points and Garage 59 in third with 19.

The latter leads the Gold Cup with 34 points, with Pure Rxcing and Rutronik topping the Silver and Bronze Cups, respectively.

The Track 

Credit: Racing Circuits Info

It might be a pretty long time since the circuit’s heyday as the home of Formula One’s British Grand Prix, but Brands Hatch remains a quite busy circuit, as it also hosts numerous national series such as the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), British GT Championship and the GB3 Championship.

A consistently demanding track due to elevation changes, blind corner entries and overall a narrow layout with limited run-off areas mean that precision and consistency matter even more than usual besides raw speed in order to attain an often pretty valuable track position.

Schedule

Track action begins on Saturday, 2nd May 2026, with Free Practice 1 taking place at 09:35 (08:35 GMT), with Free Practice 2 at 12:00 (11:00 GMT) and then the all-important Qualifying at 16:40 (15:40 GMT).

The two one-hour races will take place on Sunday, 3rd May 2026, with the first taking place at 11:15 (10:15 GMT) and the second one at 15:45 (14:45 GMT).

The Race will be free to watch for everyone on the GTWorld YouTube channel.