GTWC EU: No.50 Ferrari inherit chaotic Race 1 win at Brands Hatch after a myriad of post-race penalties

Credit: SRO/JEP

The Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer driven No.50 AF Corse Ferrari win in Race 1 at Brands Hatch after original winners Chris Lulham and Dani Juncadella among others, receive penalty for yellow flag infringement.

The sunny Brands Hatch circuit provided us with an exciting Sprint Cup season opening Race 1, with the race result changing after the chequered flag.

The Pole-sitting No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche of Ricardo Feller retained his lead in the start, followed up by Arthur Leclerc in the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari. Meanwhile Dani Juncadella in the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes got the better of Matisse Lismont, grabbing third from the No.30 Team WRT BMW.

But the action was short-lived, as the race was red-flagged five minutes in, as the the No.10 Boutsen VDS of Robin Knutsson was tagged from behind by Simon Birch's No.914 Razoon - more than racing Porsche, a crash that meant the No.10 car has not thus far completed a full racing lap in the 2026 GTWC EU season.

After a delay due to the repairs that needed to be made to the barriers and the removal of the Porsche from the track, the race resumed, as ever with Feller in the lead, Leclerc second and Juncadella third. Further back the two Aston Martin cars of Comtoyou Racing had climbed up positions though far from the leaders.

For his part in causing the collision, Birch received a 20-second stop & go penalty, that dropped him to last.

Steadily throughout the first part of the race, the gap between the three leading cars was fluctuating, with Juncadella at one point more than 2.5 seconds away from Feller and Leclerc, though stuck in the back of the Ferrari right before the race-changing pit stop sequence began when the 35-minute mark hit.

Feller in the No.80 Porsche was the first to jump into the pit lane alongside others and switched over to Bastian Buus, though this was the critical point, in which the crew's race started to fall apart.

Leclerc pitted the lap after and in the hands of Thomas Neubauer the Ferrari came ahead and the same occured with the No.3 Mercedes which pit the lap after that and in the hands now of Chris Lulham, came away with the lead, in a stunning act of overcutting!

The No.80 Porsche in the hands of Buus seemed unable to do anything, appearing in massive trouble, eventually losing more places to Dorian Boccolaci in the No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche and then to the No.46 Team WRT BMW of Max Hesse, as well as to the No.31 WRT BMW of Jordan Pepper, in an amazing outside pass!

All of that and much more impressive action throughout the field occured right before a short period of Full Course Yellow, due to the beached No.99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi of Alex Aka. This saw the final demise of the No.80 Porsche, with Buus pitting in order to retire the car due to an ongoing steering issue as was revealed, putting a disappointing end to a valiant effort for the team.

With the race resumed, more action and overtaking ensued, with Lulham gradually extending his lead from Neubauer and Boccolaci. Everything appeared set in stone for a Verstappen Racing win, but a final curveball was thrown, as the crew received a five-second penalty, with the gap to Neubauer 4.6 seconds with only two laps to go.

The Briton soldiered on, giving two quick final laps, clearing the penalty and crossing the line first 6.1 seconds ahead of Neubauer, but his joy was short-lived, as subsequently a drive-thorugh penalty (converted to a 30-second penalty) demoted him to 15th!

The same penalty was handed-out to eight others due to yellow flag infringements, meaning chaos in the final race results, with winners Leclerc/Neubauer joined on the podium by the now second place No.2 Porsche of Schuring/Boccolacci and third place No.32 Team WRT BMW of Weerts/Van der Linde.

The Silver class leading car of Lismont/Montenegro shared the exact same fate as Lulham/Juncadella's with the same penalty affecting them, as the No.9 Pure Rxcing Porsche of Nesov/Malykhin inherited the class win and a seventh overall place, right ahead of the Gold class winners, Mosca/Zagazeta in the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari in (overall) eighth.

Race Results - Top 5

1st No.50 AF Corse, Ferrari - Leclerc, Neubauer

2nd No.2 Boutsen VDS, Porsche - Schuring,Boccolacci

3rd No.32 Team WRT, BMW - Weerts, Van der Linde

4th No.31 Team WRT, BMW - Cordeel, Pepper

5th No.14 Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari - Lappalainen, Cairoli