Lionspeed GP lifts GTWC Europe Sprint Cup title at Barcelona

In a weekend of contrasting races due to the weather, the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup weekend at Barcelona saw the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Dylan Pereira and Alex Aka win a soaked Race 1 while Thierry Vermeulen and Ben Green took the Sunday honors in much better conditions with the No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, all while Lionspeed GP’s Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller were crowned Sprint Cup champions.
 

The weather decided to not help right at the start of the first race, with the rain getting visibly harder during the formation lap, forcing the Safety Car to stay longer to assess the conditions further. With an overzealous approach by Bastian Buus that almost turned the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche into a victim in the first corner, Kieran Jewiss put the No. 222 2Seas Mercedes in the lead, though he would have company as the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari passed the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari for second and Dennis Marschall being more at ease with the wet condition.
 
The top two would engage in battle but the No. 222 would have some hanging bodywork while keeping the lead, but in the following lap, the No. 74 pulls out the move and overtakes two for one, finally getting the top spot. Not everybody was having the fine control that Marschall and Lucas Auer were having, as the No. 11 Comtoyou Aston Martin, the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren and the No. 66 Attempto Audi were stranded on track, either as results of their own crashes or contact with other cars, and with the situation getting bad in the third sector, the Safety Car was called.
 
Seven minutes were needed to tidy things up, but the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari losing the second place by going off the track proved that no one was totally safe out there. The Pro Cup and Gold Cup cars had their mandatory stops, and just when the Silver Cup and Bronze Cup cars were preparing to jump in, the red flag was waved, with the cars staying in the pit lane for 20 minutes, and after two Safety Car laps, the green was waved again.
 
The whole issue now was that Bronze Cup cars with Bronze rated drivers were leading the field, and with the No. 991 Paradine BMW and the No. 222 banging doors, the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche immediately jumped to second, eventually rising to the lead after Constantin Dressler defended to the limit with a clever approach from the outside of the corners.
 
Since lots of cars were still finding ways to leave the track in the third sector, a full course yellow was called with eight minutes to go, and around this time, the No. 2 was penalized due to an unsafe release in the pits, and when it went to serve the stop and go, the No. 99 Attempto Audi finally took the lead and never left it until the finish line. Despite being the most awkward car in the first stint, the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche took second overall and won the Pro Cup, while the No. 93 Tempesta Porsche won the battle against a brave Constantin Dressler in the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari to take Bronze Cup honors, and despite having the benefits during the red flag, the No. 5 Optimum McLaren won the Silver Cup but stood just outside the overall top 20, way behind of the other class winners.
 
GTWC Europe - Barcelona Race 1 results
 

The Sunday race was left for a pretty late start time in order to avoid the storm that hit Barcelona, and the dry track allowed one hell of a mess in the first corner, with the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari somehow keeping the lead and the No. 3 Verstappen Mercedes flew from sixth to second in a corner, after the No. 48 Winward Mercedes was punted to an awkward position and collected those around it. With more contacts and some cars being spun, the Safety Car was called.
 
When the race resumed, the Silver Cup leading No. 66 Attempto Audi passed the Gold Cup leading No. 163 VSR Lamborghini, with the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari also passing the No. 163. The situation hit a status quo until the pit window, where Verstappen Racing didn’t work well and released the No. 3 in a crowded fast lane, forcing Daniel Juncadella to back off and lose positions.
 
The Ferrari domination remained for the whole second stint, with the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari keeping the lead until the finish line and the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari getting the second place after some neat pitwork, leaving the No. 66 Attempto Audi in third overall to win the Silver Cup, while the No. 163 VSR Lamborghini stood outside the overall podium but won comfortably the Gold Cup. Eddie Cheever had to sweat until the finish to complete the Bronze Cup sweep for the No. 93 Tempesta Porsche in Dennis Marschall’s face as the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari lost the class battle again.
 
GTWC Europe - Barcelona Race 2 results
 
Feller and Buus (No. 80) finished the Sprint Cup season with 72 points against the 65.5 of Leclerc and Neubauer (No. 50), while Daniel Juncadella (No. 3) puts Verstappen Racing in third in its first Pro Cup season with 59 points.
 
Tommaso Mosca and Matias Zagazeta (AF Corse No. 51) celebrated the Gold Cup title against Aka and Pereira, while Matisse Lismont and Ignacio Montenegro (WRT No. 30) crowned a good season with the Silver Cup title. In the Bronze Cup, Peter Dempsey and Eddie Cheever III (Ziggo Tempesta No. 93) were crowned the champions.
 
The series moves to Portimão to conclude the 2026 season as a whole, with the final Endurance Cup race set for 18 October, which will mark Max Verstappen’s debut in GT World Challenge Europe as a driver, followed by Ben Barnicoat to fill in for Juncadella and Jules Gounon in the No. 3 Verstappen Mercedes.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP