Vermeulen and Green win the Barcelona finale for Emil Frey Racing
Emil Frey Racing turned a non-score on Saturday into a win in the Sprint Cup finale, with AF Corse second and Attempto third
Thierry Vermeulen and Ben Green have won the final race of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup in Barcelona. The Emil Frey Racing Ferrari took the lead early, kept it through the pit stops and beat the AF Corse Ferrari of Thomas Neubauer and Arthur Leclerc by 4.454 seconds. The Tresor Attempto Audi of Ariel Levi and Andrea Frassineti finished third and won the Silver Cup.
It was a complete turnaround for the Emil Frey crew, who were not classified in Race 1 on Saturday, and the second Race 2 win in a row for the number 69 after its victory at Zandvoort in September.
Green builds it, Vermeulen brings it home
Race 2 started at 18:20 local time after rain had wiped out the rest of Saturday and the morning programme, with the grid set from Friday’s wet second practice. Ben Green took the lead early in the Ferrari, followed by Chris Lulham in the Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing car, with the Attempto Audi and Arthur Leclerc’s AF Corse Ferrari close behind. Green held the gap to Lulham at under a second through the first half of the race, while Leclerc worked his way up to third.
The pit window opened with half an hour to go. Vermeulen took over the leading Ferrari and came out still in front, while Neubauer brought the AF Corse car up to second. From there the Dutch driver controlled the race to the flag. The Team Verstappen Mercedes lost out in the stops and finished fifth with Dani Juncadella at the wheel.
Chaos on the opening lap
The start was chaotic. The Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel started from pole, made contact with the Lionspeed GP Porsche and pushed it aside. The Winward car, which had already lost places, then rejoined the track roughly and hit the number 111 CSA Racing McLaren, which in turn pushed the Lionspeed Porsche through the gravel. A short Safety Car period followed. Race control also investigated the number 48 for a jump start, and the Winward crew received a ten-second time penalty for the opening-lap collision, which dropped them to eleventh.
The Lionspeed Porsche finished well down the order after two pit stops, but Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller had already secured the Sprint Cup title on Saturday.
Spinelli and Michelotto take the Gold Cup win
The VSR Lamborghini of Loris Spinelli and Mattia Michelotto finished fourth overall and won the Gold Cup. In the Bronze Cup, Eddie Cheever and Peter Dempsey took the class win in the Ziggo Sport Tempesta Porsche in 20th place.
Race control was busy all race. The number 88 Tresor Attempto Audi was investigated for a short pit stop, the number 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche received a drive-through for pushing another car, and the number 46 Team WRT BMW a drive-through for an unsafe release, which was converted into a 26-second time penalty. The Boutsen VDS Porsche of Sven Müller and Dorian Boccolacci stopped with a technical problem during the pit window.
The Race 2 result
Top 10 according to SRO’s final classification, with all time penalties applied. Thirty-three laps were completed. The Lionspeed Porsche of the new champions was classified 36th, one lap down.
| Pos | No | Class | Drivers | Team | Time / gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 69 | Pro | Thierry Vermeulen / Ben Green | Emil Frey Racing (Ferrari) | 1:01:21.834 |
| 2 | 50 | Pro | Thomas Neubauer / Arthur Leclerc | AF Corse (Ferrari) | +4.454 |
| 3 | 66 | Silver | Ariel Levi / Andrea Frassineti | Tresor Attempto Racing (Audi) | +10.074 |
| 4 | 163 | Gold | Loris Spinelli / Mattia Michelotto | VSR (Lamborghini) | +16.314 |
| 5 | 3 | Pro | Dani Juncadella / Chris Lulham | Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing | +18.068 |
| 6 | 32 | Pro | Charles Weerts / Kelvin van der Linde | Team WRT (BMW) | +20.629 |
| 7 | 7 | Pro | Kobe Pauwels / Nicki Thiim | Comtoyou Racing (Aston Martin) | +21.232 |
| 8 | 31 | Pro | Amaury Cordeel / Jordan Pepper | Team WRT (BMW) | +23.872 |
| 9 | 59 | Pro | Joseph Loake / Dean Macdonald | Garage 59 (McLaren) | +24.235 |
| 10 | 99 | Gold | Dylan Pereira / Alex Aka | Tresor Attempto Racing (Audi) | +24.463 |
Our read
Vermeulen and Green gave a rain-wrecked weekend the finish it needed. Twenty-four hours after a race in which their Ferrari was not even classified, they took the lead early, survived the pit window with the leading car and never gave AF Corse a real chance. For Vermeulen it is a Dutch win to end the Sprint Cup season. On a day when the title was already settled, they made the last race worth watching.
Was this the best drive of the Sprint Cup season for Vermeulen and Green? Tell us in the comments.
What comes next
Read how the title was decided in our Race 1 report and why Saturday was cancelled in our rain report. The final points are on our Sprint Cup standings page, and the championship format is explained in our GT World Challenge Europe explainer.
