No.69 Emil Frey Racing win dramatic GTWC Sprint finale in Barcelona as Bronze Cup champions crowned
The No.69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari squad consisting of Ben Green and Thierry Vermeuleun won a dramatic and action-packed second sprint race in Barcelona, in a race that saw penalties, collisions, car doors flying off their hinges and the Bronze Cup champions crowned.
Green led the field at the start of the race, going side-by-side with Maro Engel in the No.48 Winward Mercedes at the rolling start. Engel quickly seized the lead from Green, putting the Mercedes ahead of the Ferrari as they approached the first corner.
However, from a long way behind, Green dramatically dived to the inside of Engel, forcing the German wide and into the escape road between the first two corners. The No.3 Verstappen Racing 2Seas Mercedes of Chris Lulham had initially managed an attempt at going around the outside of the pair for the lead of the race, but Lulham had to take evasive action with the charging Ferrari of Ben Green on the inside.
Lulham cut across the escape road and went into the third corner in the lead of the race. The Briton slowed down to give the lead back to Green, but gained a crucial advantage over the cars behind, who found themselves in all sorts of strife.
Engel, who was attempting to re-join the circuit after being pushed wide by the race leader, cut across the track, making contact with Arthur Rougier in the No.111 CSA Racing McLaren. Rougier was sent into a spin at Turn 3, nearly collecting some of the other cars behind. Engel and the No.48 Winward Mercedes squad would later receive a 10-second time penalty for causing this incident.
The No.48 Winward Mercedes fell down to sixth place after being bumped off the circuit, losing five places in just a couple of corners. However, the two Mercedes cars were most certainly not alone in their track excursions, with almost half the field off at the opening corner.
After a chaotic opening and the No.111 McLaren being left stricken on the side of the road, a Safety Car was deployed, neutralising the race temporarily. At the restart, the silver cup No.66 Tresor Attempto Audi managed to overtake the No.163 VSR Lamborghini into the second corner, out-braking the Lamborghini into the first corner before running around the car, completing the move by taking the inside line for the second corner.
Arthur Leclerc then came flying around the outside of the No.163 VSR Lamborghini into Turn 3, picking up enough traction and speed to almost then make a move on the No.66 Audi into Turn 4. With Emil Frey's Ferrari leading the way from the Verstappen 2Seas Racing Mercedes, the battle for the final spot on the podium was on.
Further down the field, the No.46 Team WRT BMW of MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi was making strong progress. Max Hesse was at the wheel of the No.46 BMW, and managed to go from 21st place at the Safety Car restart, to 18th at the end of the lap. The German driver picked up strong momentum, overtaking the No.59 McLaren of Dean MaDonald before then making his way through on the No.10 Boutsen VDS Porsche squad.
Hesse showed impressive race-craft, overtaking Zagazeta in the No.51 Ferrari for 15th place, before then overtaking the No.5 McLaren at Turn 6, with Hesse squeezed over the racing line, putting two wheels onto the grass whilst trying to make the overtake. The German was at the back of the WRT BMW field, which ran bumper-to-bumper for several laps, picking off other cars as a team.
Christopher Haase and Dorian Boccolacci duelled intensely for 7th place on Lap 8 of the race, with the No.84 Audi of Haase searching desperately for a way through on Boccolacci's No.2 Porsche. Eventually, Haase did find a gap at Turn 9, pushing the Porsche out wide. However, Boccolacci then came right back at the German into Turn 10's hairpin left-hander. After several laps of running extremely close together, Haase did manage to find a way through on Boccolacci at Turn 12, taking an early apex, nudging the right rear side of Boccolacci's Porsche to open a gap, which Haase then seized at the first opportunity.
Just behind them, the No.007 ComToYou Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and the No.14 BWT Ferrari of Matteo Cairoli battled over ninth place. Thiim and Cairoli went side-by-side coming out of Turn 9, with Thiim pushing the Ferrari onto the grass and gravel on the exit of the corner. The pair went into the slow left-hander of Turn 10 side-by-side once again, with Thiim squeezing Cairoli to the inside of the corner. Out of nowhere, the No.32 WRT BMW came steaming around the outside, overtaking the Aston Martin before quickly dispatching of the Ferrari.
On Lap 11, fresh after being overtaken by the No.32 BMW, Cairoli was then chased and overtaken by the threatening fleet of Team WRT BMW's. Eventually, after just a lap and a half, Cairoli had fallen from 9th to 13th.
The field then came in for their pit stop window, and Chris Lulham was able to close on Ben Green on the entry to the pit lane, with the pair separated by around half a second and a crucial pit stop coming up. However, disaster would strike for the No.3 Verstappen 2Seas Racing squad, who had a significantly slow pit stop that left them out of contention for the victory and for the podium.
After a slow stop, the No.3 Verstappen 2Seas Mercedes car was down in 5th position. The Barcelona circuit is notoriously difficult to overtake at, particularly with heavy GT3 machinery. The No.3 Verstappen 2Seas Mercedes had lost several places to the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari, No.163 VSR Lamborghini and No.48 Winward Mercedes.
The No.2 Porsche was then forced to pull over to the side of the track with a technical issue, an incident which would bring out a Full Course Yellow after an initial grace period for the pit stop window, so that no teams could stand to benefit from making their mandatory stop whilst the field are forced to drive at one pace.
Once racing resumed, it wasn't long before another yellow flag was flown. MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi was competing in the No.46 Team WRT BMW, however the Italian lost one of his car doors whilst racing, and was forced to come into the pit lane to repair the damage, effectively ending their race.
With a much calmer second half of the race, the No.69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari squad won in Barcelona, followed by the No.66 Tresor Attempto Racing Aud in third. The No.163 VSR Lamborghini stood in fourth. Despite the No.48 Winward Mercedes squad coming over the line in fifth, their penalty dropped them well out of contention for more serious points. Instead, it was the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes who claimed fifth place, with Juncadella at the wheel.
Amongst all the chaos, Peter Dempsey and Eddie Cheever won the Bronze Cup with the No.93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche also winning the race in class.
A chaotic 2026 Sprint Cup sees Lionspeed GP's Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller crowned Sprint champions. The GTWC Europe returns for the overall series finale in two weeks' time at the Portimão circuit, where the field will be joined by four-time F1 world champion, Max Verstappen.
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