GTWC EU Barcelona Qualifying Two cancelled amid heavy rainfall concerns - Race Two rescheduled

Credit: SRO/JEP

The second qualifying session for the GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC EU) Barcelona Sprint Cup finale has been cancelled, after the area falls under ''code red'', with the second race being rescheduled.

The official timetable for the GTWC EU Sprint Cup finale taking place in Barcelona has been altered, after extreme conditions have fallen upon the region. Due to the heavy rainfall, the local government has declared a directive, that has prohibited all activities between 20:00 on Saturday and 14:00 on Sunday.

Expected conditions are such that a warning of up to 90mm of rainfall per hour, and over 200mm in a six-hour period, was forecast.

This meant that the scheduled Lamborghini Super Trofeo support race that would round out Saturday's action, as well as all track action that was set to take place on Sunday morning.

Credit: SRO/JEP

An official statement from GT World Challenge Europe, published early in the afternoon, read as follows:

“Due to persistent heavy rain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the race directors have declared that conditions are not safe to continue with today’s schedule. As such, the remainder of Saturday’s activities have been cancelled.

“Further to this, a local government directive has prohibited all activities between 20:00 on Saturday and 14:00 on Sunday. This will require a new timetable, which will be released in due course and will remain subject to further alterations.

“Sunday’s programme is planned to start at 14:00 and will consist of races for GT World Challenge, Lamborghini Super Trofeo, McLaren Trophy Europe and the GT3 Revival Series. The remaining qualifying sessions may be cancelled. No additional activities will take place.

“Further information and the revised timetable will be provided in due course.”

We have subsequently been informed however, that the second qualifying session will not take place, with Race Two set to start at 18:20 local time (17:20 BST)

While which session's results will be used to determine the starting grid for Race Two still remain unclear for the time being, it effectively confirms the status of Lionspeed GP's No.80 duo of Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller as 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Overall Sprint Cup champions.

There was some uncertainty to their provisional champions status, as a decision regarding the potential disqualification of the No.48 Winward Mercedes from Race 2 at Misano - which will be decided in the RACB court.

Such a decision would have meant that the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari of Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer would have gained an extra one and a half points, which would have left the mathematical door for the title open, as the gap between them and the Lionspeed Porsche would have been down to 17 points, with 17.5 still available.

This however is no longer the case, as the Ferrari duo can no longer get the one point for pole position in Race Two, even if the DSQ of Maro Engel and Lucas Auer gets through.