GetSpeed wins the Portimão finale as Verstappen recovers from 24th to ninth

Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed won the GT World Challenge Europe season finale at Portimão on Saturday. Ralf Aron, Maximilian Götz and Fabian Schiller brought the #17 Mercedes-AMG home first after 94 laps and three hours, ahead of the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche and the pole-sitting #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche. Max Verstappen finished ninth on his series debut, after a drive-through penalty had dropped the #3 car to 24th.

All of Verstappen’s GT3 races this year, with official results: Max Verstappen GT3 results 2026.

Full classification and class winners: Portimão 2026 results. Start times and how to watch: Portimão 2026 schedule.

Schiller brings the #17 home after Aron led early

Boutsen VDS led away from pole with Alessio Picariello, chased by Thomas Preining in the #80 Lionspeed Porsche. The order changed through the pit stops. By the halfway mark Ralf Aron had the #17 GetSpeed Mercedes in front, and Fabian Schiller kept it there through the final stint and a late Safety Car period.

Bastian Buus took the #80 Lionspeed Porsche to second, shared with Ricardo Feller and Preining. Morris Schuring finished third in the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche, which had started from pole after Schuring, Dorian Boccolacci and Picariello set the best average in qualifying. The #59 Garage 59 McLaren, which climbed to third mid-race, finished sixth.

Two Safety Cars reshaped the race

The first long neutralisation came after about 90 minutes, when the #54 Dinamic GT Porsche and the #9 Pure Rxcing Porsche collided and both ended up in the gravel. Race Control called a Full Course Yellow, then turned it into a Safety Car period, which wiped out the gaps. The stewards later penalised ten cars for not slowing enough under the Full Course Yellow, among them the #54 and the #64, which each received ten seconds.

A second Full Course Yellow, for another car in the gravel, also became a Safety Car with around 25 minutes to go. That restart set up the final sprint to the flag.

From 24th to ninth in Verstappen’s stint

The #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing car started 15th, with Ben Barnicoat on the opening stint. Chris Lulham took it up to sixth and spent several laps on the tail of Luca Stolz in the #48 MANN-FILTER Mercedes. When Lulham tried to pass, the two cars made contact. Stolz spun, and the stewards gave the #3 a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable collision with the #48 on the approach to Turn 8 (Decision 30).

Verstappen later spoke out against the online abuse Lulham received after the race: Verstappen defends Chris Lulham after online abuse.

Lulham served the penalty before the final driver change, so Verstappen started his stint from 24th. He was 21st when the late Full Course Yellow came out and 19th under the Safety Car. After the restart he passed car after car, at times several in one move, and reached ninth at the flag. His best lap, a 1:44.506, came on lap 92 of 94.

Ninth in a field of 61 GT3 cars is no headline result on paper. But the penalty dropped the #3 from sixth to 24th, and Verstappen won back 15 of those places in the closing half hour of his first race in the series.

Marschall takes the Bronze Cup, 2Seas wins the class

The only title still open before the race went to Dennis Marschall. He arrived 20.5 points clear in the Bronze Cup and only had to stay out of trouble. Shared with Dustin Blattner and Lorenzo Patrese, his #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari ran in the points all race and finished fifth in class, with Marschall at the wheel for the final stint.

The class win went to the #222 2Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Reece Barr, Kiern Jewiss and Charles Dawson, 13th overall, even though the stewards had cancelled the car’s qualifying times on Friday. Marvin Dienst and Rinat Salikhov finished second in Bronze in the #87 Winward Mercedes, shared with Gabriele Piana. Second in class is worth 18 points, not enough to close the gap. Darren Leung’s #991 Paradine BMW led the class in the first half of the race but fell back to fourth.

The Gold Cup race went to the #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari, fourth overall. The #30 Team WRT BMW won the Silver class in fifth overall. The overall, Gold and Silver titles had already been settled before the weekend; read our Bronze Cup and title preview.

Our take

Our take: the penalty was Lulham’s to own, but the recovery says more about the #3 crew’s pace than the result does. A car that ran sixth before the contact and finished ninth after a drive-through had podium speed for long spells. If the team returns to GT World Challenge in 2027, Portimão suggests it will not be there to make up the numbers.

The Bronze Cup was settled the way the arithmetic said it would be. Marschall did not need to win, only to finish, and Kessel played it accordingly.

Portimão closes the 2026 season

The three-hour race was the last round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe season, with every title now decided. All starters and line-ups from this weekend are in our Portimão entry list, qualifying is in our qualifying report, and how the Safety Car and Full Course Yellow work is explained in Full Course Yellow and Safety Car explained.

Classification: Race Final Results, SRO noticeboard. Race incidents and penalties as announced by Race Control and followed in our live coverage.

Next season: GT World Challenge Europe 2027 calendar, all ten rounds and dates.

Was ninth from 24th Verstappen’s best drive yet in GT3, or should the #3 have been fighting for the podium? Tell us in the comments.