GT World Challenge Europe | Race 1, Race 2 and the championship run-in

Race weekend: Sep 19, 2026 and Sep 20, 2026

Garage 59 made Sprint Cup history on Saturday; Emil Frey Racing delivered a home victory on Sunday. Watched by more than 26,000 spectators, Zandvoort produced both teams’ first overall wins of the season, changed the Sprint championship lead and left eight cars with a driver still in title contention.

Race 1: Garage 59 makes history

Tom Fleming laid the foundations in the #58 McLaren, passing polesitter Morris Schuring’s #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche at Gerlach on the opening lap. Louis Prette completed the job, finishing 0.676 seconds ahead of Dorian Boccolacci to secure the first outright Sprint victory for a Gold Cup entry.

Both leading cars received five-second penalties: Garage 59 for an unsafe release, Boutsen VDS for a mechanic remaining in the working area. Their matching sanctions preserved the winning margin and finishing order.

Behind them, Ben Green transformed the podium battle with approximately five minutes remaining. Passing both Simon Birch’s #914 Razoon Porsche and Ricardo Feller’s #80 Lionspeed Porsche, he secured third for himself and Thierry Vermeulen in the #69 Emil Frey Ferrari. Birch and Klaus Bachler finished fourth.

Lionspeed’s championship hopes suffered when a 29-second penalty for Bastian Buus loosening his belts while still on track dropped the #80 to 23rd. A potentially valuable result became a scoreless afternoon.

Dani Juncadella and Chris Lulham recovered from 27th to fifth for Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, ahead of AF Corse’s Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer. Juncadella consequently inherited the overnight Sprint lead. Previous leaders Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde retired their #32 WRT BMW with technical trouble; Winward’s Lucas Auer and Maro Engel also missed the points. Lulham also recorded the race’s fastest lap, a 1:35.411, underlining the pace behind that recovery.

Race 2: Ferrari rewards the home crowd

Konsta Lappalainen claimed his first overall pole in the #14 Emil Frey Ferrari with a 1:33.192. Green then passed Prette at the start, establishing a Ferrari one-two. An opening-lap incident brought out the safety car, while Nicolas Baert’s later incident triggered a Full Course Yellow.

Green reacted faster when racing resumed and passed Lappalainen for the lead. During the pit stops, Lionspeed split the Ferraris, with Buus emerging ahead of Matteo Cairoli’s #14 after taking over from Feller.

Vermeulen brought the #69 home 3.700 seconds clear of Buus, delivering victory on home ground. Cairoli completed the podium, another 1.564 seconds behind, and set the fastest lap. Ferrari had converted its qualifying speed into a win, but Lionspeed’s second place carried the biggest Sprint championship reward. His 1:34.462 provided another measure of Emil Frey’s strength across both cars.

Saturday’s winners endured a reversal: contact between Fleming and WRT’s Amaury Cordeel sent the BMW into the Turn 3 barriers. A ten-second stop-and-go penalty left Garage 59 25th overall. Valentino Rossi and Max Hesse finished fourth for WRT, ahead of Leclerc and Neubauer. Auer and Engel were eighth, Juncadella and Lulham ninth; the #32 finished 15th, completing a scoreless weekend.

Sprint: three leaders across one weekend

Weerts and van der Linde arrived leading with 49.5 points, before Juncadella moved ahead on Saturday. By Sunday evening, Buus and Feller led on 59. Juncadella and the Leclerc/Neubauer pairing each have 53, with the #32 crew still on 49.5. Auer and Engel hold 42; Green and Vermeulen’s podium and victory lifted them from 14 to 40. Lionspeed’s advantage is six points over its nearest challengers and 9.5 over the former leaders.

Hesse and Rossi, on 32.5, and Boccolacci, on 26, also remain mathematically eligible. These are drivers’ standings: teammates do not necessarily share identical totals, which explains Juncadella’s individual position.

Barcelona offers 35 points: 16.5 for each win and one for each pole. Two victories would take Juncadella or the AF Corse pairing to 86, beyond Lionspeed’s maximum 85 from two seconds and both poles. Conversely, two wins alone would not guarantee the #32 crew the title. These scenarios assume full points are awarded.

WRT nevertheless leads the Sprint teams’ championship on 80.5, ahead of Lionspeed’s 61 and AF Corse’s 58.5, thanks to contributions beyond its troubled #32.

Combined championship: Winward’s drivers, WRT’s teams

Auer and Engel retain the combined drivers’ lead on 128.5, now 36.5 clear of Weerts and van der Linde on 92. Buus and Feller have 89, followed by Luca Stolz on 86 and Juncadella on 74. Their advantage increased from 34.5 despite a weekend yielding just two points.

With Barcelona’s 35 and Portimão’s 26, 61 points remain. Auer and Engel can clinch in Spain if they leave more than 26 clear of every rival. Their Endurance title with Stolz is already secured; Zandvoort awarded no Endurance points.

The combined teams’ lead changed hands. WRT arrived 4.5 behind Winward, but a 14-point weekend put it ahead, 137.5 to 133.5. Lionspeed sits third on 91. Only four points now separate the leading organisations, with different leaders in the drivers’ and teams’ contests.

Class titles and the final stretch

Matisse Lismont and Ignacio Montenegro completed WRT’s Silver Cup sweep. Saturday’s class win secured the combined title; Sunday’s second place behind Comtoyou’s Arthur Dorison and Oliver Söderström sealed Sprint. With Endurance already won, the #30 crew now holds all three crowns. Their 120 Sprint points put them well beyond Jamie Day and Mateo Villagomez on 69, while Dorison and Söderström have 56.5.

Gold remains open. AF Corse’s Tommaso Mosca and Matias Zagazeta lead on 96.5 after winning Sunday’s class, with Fleming and Prette on 75.5. Only Garage 59 remains within the available 35 points. AF Corse’s Gold advantage grew from 15 to 21; third-placed Pereira and Aka, 35.5 behind, are eliminated. Mosca and Zagazeta also finished sixth overall on Sunday, reinforcing AF Corse’s wider weekend contribution.

In Bronze, two wins propelled Ziggo Sport Tempesta’s Peter Dempsey and Eddie Cheever from third to first on 70.5, ahead of Rinat Salikhov and Marvin Dienst on 64 and Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss on 59.5. Bronze’s new leaders have only 6.5 points in hand.

Barcelona, from Oct 2, 2026 to Oct 4, 2026, will settle Sprint. Portimão follows from Oct 16, 2026 to Oct 18, 2026 to decide the remaining combined honours. Zandvoort’s penalties showed how quickly competitive pace can become a lost score, leaving little margin for error.