Iron Dames take Pro-Am podium in Portimão Race 1, last-lap setback in Race 2

Sarah Bovy and Laura van den Hengel finished third in Pro-Am in Race 1 of the GT2 European Series finale at Portimão on Sunday, bringing the #85 Iron Dames by SP Racing Maserati home seventh overall and 8.399 seconds behind the class-winning #110 Mercedes-AMG. Race 2 ended in disappointment: sixth in Pro-Am in the live timing in the closing minutes, the car dropped to 14th overall and eighth in class on the final lap, 1:09.040 behind the winning #1 LP Racing Maserati in the final classification.

Our qualifying report with the full practice and qualifying times: Iron Dames lead the Pro-Am cars on the Race 1 grid. Start times and how the Portimão weekend works: our Portimão schedule.

Seventh on the grid, seventh at the flag, third in class

Van den Hengel started Race 1 from seventh, the leading Pro-Am car on the grid after the #77 Ligier was withdrawn. The 23-lap race got the green flag at 09:27 local time on a dry track and had one safety car period. With Bovy sharing the car, the #85 set its fastest lap, a 1:45.976, on the final lap.

The final classification has the #85 seventh overall and third of the seven classified Pro-Am cars. Wilhelm Kühne and Moritz Wiskirchen won the race outright for SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm, 1.172 seconds ahead of Antoine Potty’s Silver Cup Maserati. Philippe and Louis Prette were second in Pro-Am in the #1 LP Racing Maserati, 5.4 seconds ahead of the Iron Dames. The #115 NM Racing Mercedes-AMG of Alberto De Martin and Nil Montserrat crossed the line 0.725 seconds behind the #85.

The stewards gave the #111 Mercedes-AMG of David Thilenius and Jay Mo Härtling a 10-second time penalty and a penalty point for passing the #85 off the track at Turn 4, according to the stewards’ decision. The #85 had no penalty.

A minute lost on the last lap of the season

Bovy started Race 2 from seventh on the grid, with van den Hengel taking over at the pit stop. With just under 13 minutes left the live timing had the #85 eighth overall and sixth in Pro-Am, 4.2 seconds behind the #7 Dinamic Motorsport Maserati after the stops.

A safety car followed an incident involving the #898 KTM at Turn 5, and the stewards later gave the #294 RTR Projects Mercedes-AMG a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with the #898. The race went green again with one lap to go. On that final lap the live timing showed the #85 losing about a minute in the first sector, and van den Hengel took the flag in 14th, eighth in Pro-Am, on the same lap as the leaders. The official documents published so far do not give a reason, and the #85 has no penalty.

Louis and Philippe Prette won the race outright and the Pro-Am class in the #1 LP Racing Maserati, 2.208 seconds ahead of the #18 Silver Cup car of Niccolo Pirri and Stefan Rosina. Behind the #1, the next Pro-Am cars were the #27 CMR Lamborghini, the #115 NM Racing Mercedes-AMG and the #7 Dinamic Maserati, after a 5-second penalty for the #27 for track limits and a 10-second penalty for the #7 for push to pass on the #110.

Our view

One race does not cancel out the other. In Race 1 the Iron Dames kept the Pro-Am podium in a race where the #115 finished less than a second behind them, and they did it without a penalty. In Race 2 they were sixth in class with under 13 minutes left, until one lap undid it. We will update this report if the team or the stewards explain what happened.

Portimão closes the 2026 GT2 European Series season

Portimão was the fifth and final round of the 2026 GT2 European Series. For how GT2 cars compare with the GT3 field they shared the weekend with, see our explainer on GT3, GT2 and GT4.

Sources: official GT2 European Series Race 1 final classification and class classification, Race 2 starting grid and final classification, and stewards’ decisions on the Portimão noticeboard.

Was third in Pro-Am in Race 1 enough to call Portimão a good finale for the Iron Dames? Tell us in the comments.