Six points, three brands, and Verstappen’s Mercedes in the middle at Portimão

Six points. After forty races on four continents, that is all that separates Mercedes-AMG from Porsche in the 2026 GT World Challenge powered by AWS manufacturers’ classification: 1,065 to 1,059. Ferrari, on 986, is 79 behind with six races left, according to SRO’s official standings.

One of those six races is the three-hour Endurance Cup finale at Portimão on 17 and 18 October, and one of the cars carrying AMG’s hopes there is the number 3 of Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing. Max Verstappen will drive it himself.

The gap was 29 in August

When we last added it up on 11 August, AMG and Porsche were 29 points apart after 27 of 46 events, with Ferrari 95 behind and five lead changes already on the board. After Zandvoort, SRO says, AMG led Porsche by 59. Three weekends later, that cushion is almost gone.

The global title is a brand title. Every race in GT World Challenge Europe, America, Asia and Australia feeds one table, from sprint races at Sepang to the 24 Hours of Spa, which alone gave Porsche 148 points. It rewards depth: customer teams scoring everywhere, not one strong car in one series.

Barcelona cost AMG most of its lead

In Barcelona’s second Sprint race, Chris Lulham ran second in the number 3 behind Ben Green’s Ferrari for much of the first half. The car lost out in the pit stops and Dani Juncadella brought it home fifth, the best Mercedes in that race. Porsche did not score at all, and Ferrari took its first Sprint Cup one-two. That one hour did more than any other to bring the three brands together.

At Barber the week before, AF Corse’s Ferrari of Matías Pérez Companc and Frederik Schandorff had already beaten JMF Motorsports’ Mercedes-AMG.

Ferrari’s autumn

Ferrari is the brand in form. It was the best-scoring manufacturer at Zandvoort, where Green and Thierry Vermeulen won Race 2 for Emil Frey Racing. Barber brought Ferrari’s first outright win in GT World Challenge America since 2023, and Harmony Racing’s Liu Kaishun and Takuro Shinohara won Race 1 in Beijing from pole. Barcelona’s one-two was the peak.

Porsche still has Asia

Porsche’s comeback rests partly on Asia, where it has scored heavily all year. In Beijing, Absolute Racing rebuilt a brand-new 911 overnight after a fire in Friday’s Bronze Test, and Huang Ruohan won Race 2. In Europe, Lionspeed GP’s Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus took the Sprint Cup title.

A first win at Magny-Cours, a first podium at the Nürburgring

The number 3 has been one of AMG’s steadiest scorers in Europe. It set the fastest time in the second qualifying session at Monza in May. At Magny-Cours, Jules Gounon and Juncadella started from pole and gave the team its first overall win in Race 1. At the Nürburgring three-hour race in August, Juncadella, Lulham and Gounon finished third behind Comtoyou’s Aston Martin and WRT’s BMW, the team’s first Endurance Cup podium. At Zandvoort, Lulham climbed from 28th on the grid to sixth in Race 1, passing Arthur Leclerc on the last lap.

Verstappen replaces two Hypercar drivers

Portimão clashes with the WEC round in Barcelona, a date clash we flagged in August, where Juncadella races for Genesis and Gounon for Alpine. So Verstappen takes over the number 3 alongside Lulham, with British GT driver Ben Barnicoat completing the line-up. It will be his GT World Challenge Europe debut and his first GT3 race since the Nürburgring 24 Hours in May, where his Mercedes-AMG was leading until a technical failure with around four hours to go.

Our arithmetic

A six-point lead with six races left is no lead. Our read is that the order of the final rounds favours the chasers. Indianapolis and Portimão come first, both single long races, and Ferrari has to win back most of its 79 points there before Shanghai hands Porsche its usual Asian haul. AMG’s best card may be the last one: in September Oscar Targett and Shane Smollen won in Australia for Kollosche AMG by Tigani Motorsport. But Adelaide is not until December. If the number 3 gets through Portimão’s pit stops cleanly this time, Verstappen could be adding points to a world title of a different kind.

Four rounds, one on each continent

• Indianapolis, 10 and 11 October: GT World Challenge America ends at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge’s Indy 8 Hour.
• Portimão, 17 and 18 October: the three-hour finale of GT World Challenge Europe, with Verstappen in the number 3.
• Shanghai, 31 October and 1 November: two races to close GT World Challenge Asia.
• Adelaide, 5 and 6 December: the title showdown of GT World Challenge Australia.

Behind the top three, BMW sits narrowly ahead of Audi, followed by McLaren, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Ford. The figures in this article come from SRO’s global title round-up of 5 October and its official standings.

Can Verstappen’s Mercedes help AMG hold off Porsche and Ferrari, or is six points too little? Tell us in the comments.