Fleming leads Race 1 at Zandvoort after passing Schuring at a chaotic start
Fleming took the lead around the outside before the Hugenholtzbocht on lap one, and a stopped BMW brought out an early safety car.
Morris Schuring lost the lead of Race 1 at Zandvoort at the first corner. Thomas Fleming took the number 58 Garage 59 McLaren around the outside of the polesitting Porsche on the approach to the Hugenholtzbocht, and a Gold Cup car has led the race outright ever since. A stopped BMW at the Hugenholtzbocht then brought out the safety car.
In this article
- Fleming went around the outside before the Hugenholtzbocht
- A stopped BMW at the Hugenholtzbocht brought out the safety car
- Garage 59 leads the race and runs 35th at the same time
- Neubauer and Buus are the title contenders in the top ten
- Vermeulen up to seventh
- The order after five laps
- Our working theory: the pit window decides this
- The race runs to 15:45
Fleming went around the outside before the Hugenholtzbocht
Schuring had a tenth of a second in hand over Fleming after Qualifying 1, and none of it counted for long. Schuring held the lead through Tarzan with the McLaren alongside him, and Fleming took the place around the outside on the approach to the Hugenholtzbocht. Going around the outside there is not the obvious way to pass at Zandvoort, which is part of why it worked. The two were still separated by only a second when the safety car came out.
The start was chaotic further back. Positions changed all through the opening lap, and by the end of it the order had been reshuffled well beyond the front row.
A stopped BMW at the Hugenholtzbocht brought out the safety car
The number 31 Team WRT BMW of Amaury Cordeel came to a stop at the Hugenholtzbocht in the opening laps. Cordeel had already started from the back of the grid after setting no time in qualifying.
At the same corner the number 71 AF Corse Ferrari of Carl Bennett lost control and took damage. The car came to rest facing the wrong way and has since been into the pits. It lost its bonnet after the contact.
The safety car was out for several laps and was called in with just under 50 minutes of the hour remaining. The race restarted with the order it had frozen, which is the one set out below.
Garage 59 leads the race and runs 35th at the same time
The team having the best afternoon is also having the worst one. Fleming leads in the number 58, the Gold Cup entry, while the number 59 Pro car of Dean Macdonald has fallen from sixth on the grid to 35th.
Macdonald has not made a pit stop, so those places were lost on track rather than in the lane. On the timing screen he is a lap down on nobody and simply a long way back.
Neubauer and Buus are the title contenders in the top ten
The five crews fighting for the Sprint Cup came to Zandvoort separated by less than ten points, and qualifying had already split them. The race has not closed the gap.
Thomas Neubauer is eighth in the number 50 AF Corse Ferrari and Bastian Buus ninth in the number 80 Lionspeed Porsche. They are second and fourth in the standings with Ricardo Feller and Arthur Leclerc.
Behind them, Daniel Juncadella has moved the number 3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes from 27th on the grid to 22nd, and Charles Weerts has taken the championship leading number 32 Team WRT BMW from 33rd to 26th. Lucas Auer is 21st in the number 48 Winward Mercedes.
There is a detail in that pairing worth pausing on. Auer and Juncadella were teammates earlier this year, sharing the Winward run Mercedes-AMG GT3 that Max Verstappen raced at the 2026 Nurburgring 24 Hours alongside Jules Gounon. At Zandvoort they have since moved up to 19th and 20th, running nose to tail, with Auer ahead.
Vermeulen up to seventh
Thierry Vermeulen has gained two places in the number 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari and runs seventh. Flynt Schuring is 20th in the number 89 Lionspeed GP Porsche, four places better than he qualified.
The order after five laps
Taken from the official live timing on lap five, under safety car conditions, with 52 minutes remaining. Positions will change once the pit window opens.
| Pos | No | Class | Driver | Team | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 58 | Gold | Thomas Fleming | Garage 59 (McLaren) | 2 |
| 2 | 2 | Pro | Morris Schuring | Boutsen VDS (Porsche) | 1 |
| 3 | 51 | Gold | Tommaso Mosca | AF Corse (Ferrari) | 3 |
| 4 | 991 | Bronze | Augusto Farfus | Paradine Competition (BMW) | 5 |
| 5 | 93 | Bronze | Eddie Cheever | Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing (Porsche) | 4 |
| 6 | 914 | Pro | Klaus Bachler | Razoon – more than racing (Porsche) | 7 |
| 7 | 69 | Pro | Thierry Vermeulen | Emil Frey Racing (Ferrari) | 9 |
| 8 | 50 | Pro | Thomas Neubauer | AF Corse (Ferrari) | 10 |
| 9 | 80 | Pro | Bastian Buus | Lionspeed GP (Porsche) | 8 |
| 10 | 87 | Bronze | Marvin Dienst | Winward Racing (Mercedes-AMG) | 11 |
| 11 | 30 | Silver | Matisse Lismont | Team WRT (BMW) | 14 |
| 12 | 12 | Bronze | Fabian Schiller | GetSpeed Team Dubai (Mercedes-AMG) | 12 |
| 13 | 222 | Bronze | Kiern Jewiss | 2Seas Motorsport (Mercedes-AMG) | 13 |
| 14 | 163 | Gold | Loris Spinelli | VSR (Lamborghini) | 25 |
| 15 | 55 | Bronze | Loris Cabirou | Dinamic GT (Porsche) | 15 |
Our working theory: the pit window decides this
A Gold Cup car leading a Sprint Cup race outright is not a fluke, it is the format. Fleming is one of the quicker drivers in the field and he is in the car now. The question is what happens when the mandatory stop hands the number 58 over to Louis Prette, while Schuring hands the number 2 to Dorian Boccolacci.
That is where we expect the race to settle. Schuring does not need to pass Fleming this afternoon. He needs to be close enough at the stop that the second stint does the passing for him.
The race runs to 15:45
Race 1 is an hour long with a mandatory pit stop and driver change. Qualifying 2 follows on Sunday morning from 10:35, with Race 2 at 14:15. We will have the full result when the flag falls.
