Buus and Feller take the title, Emil Frey Ferrari wins the finale

Text: Rick Kiewiet

Images: SRO

The 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup ended at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a weekend split in two by the weather. Saturday was wet, with heavy rain, a red flag and a race winner from 14th on the grid. Sunday was dry and far calmer. Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller secured the overall drivers' title with a race to spare, and Emil Frey Racing's Ben Green and Thierry Vermeulen took the finale. Gold, Silver and Bronze Cup honours were largely settled as well, while WRT collected a record 12th teams' crown.

Race 1

Buus put the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R on pole with a 1:39.542 in the opening Pro and Gold Cup group, more than half a second clear of the field. The Silver and Bronze group ran on a better track, and Kiern Jewiss came within 0.085 seconds in the #222 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG to take Bronze Cup pole and second overall. Fabian Schiller (#12 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG) was third and Felix Hirsiger (#71 AF Corse Ferrari) took Silver Cup pole. The title rivals fared badly: Thomas Neubauer's #50 AF Corse Ferrari was 11th and Daniel Juncadella's #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing car 21st. Dylan Pereira took Gold Cup pole in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, but that was only 14th overall.

Rain arrived shortly before the start, and a downpour on the grid meant a switch from slicks to wets and a second formation lap. Jewiss passed Buus at the first corner, and the Porsche dropped down the order. Dennis Marschall moved the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari from seventh to second and then took the lead from Jewiss at the second attempt. Lucas Auer made big progress in the #48 Winward Mercedes after starting 20th. An early safety car followed a collision between Neubauer and Ariel Levi's #66 Tresor Audi, which ended the #50 Ferrari's race.

A red flag came around the halfway point, when Loris Cabirou put the #55 Dinamic GT Porsche off at Turn 3 and conditions were getting worse. Half the field had yet to make its mandatory stop, including the Bronze and Silver Cup cars, which took theirs under the red flag. The restart order followed the positions from the lap before the pit window opened. That put Constantin Dressler, standing in for the unwell Dustin Blattner in the #74 Ferrari, at the front, ahead of Charles Dawson's #222 Mercedes and Darren Leung's #991 Paradine Competition BMW.

Dorian Boccolacci (#2 Boutsen VDS Porsche) worked through the Bronze runners and took the lead, but a penalty for an unsafe release in the pits undid his race. Alex Aka, who had followed him through the field, inherited the lead. Feller climbed to second and had a slight pace advantage but finished 0.789 seconds behind. It was a first overall win for Aka and Pereira, and Tresor Attempto's first Sprint Cup victory since Zandvoort 2023. Rutronik Racing's Lamborghini took third and the #59 Garage 59 McLaren was fourth after starting 33rd. Eddie Cheever and Peter Dempsey (#93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche) won the Bronze Cup for the third time in a row, in fifth overall.

Second place made Buus and Feller overall champions, and the first Porsche-driving winners of the Sprint Cup drivers' title. Tommaso Mosca and Matias Zagazeta clinched the Gold Cup for AF Corse, despite a post-race penalty that dropped the #51 Ferrari to eighth in class. Mikey Porter and Guilherme Oliveira won the Silver Cup in the #5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren. Only the Bronze Cup was left open for Sunday.

Race 2

There was no qualifying before the finale. An extreme weather alert and a local government directive stopped all activity until 2 p.m., so the grid was set from Free Practice 2 times of the drivers who hadn't qualified for Race 1. Green's 1:55.165 in the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari gave him pole, two tenths ahead of Maro Engel in the #48 Winward Mercedes. Feller and Gustav Bergström (Silver Cup pole) made up the second row in their Lionspeed GP Porsches, and Arthur Rougier took Gold Cup pole in the #111 CSA Racing McLaren in seventh. The race started at 6:20 p.m.

The finale was dry and ran in dusk light. Engel jumped into the lead at the start, was cautious at the first corner and dropped back behind Green. He then tangled with Feller and Rougier at Turn 3, sending the McLaren into the path of the Lionspeed Porsche, which had to pit for repairs. A safety car followed. A penalty later dropped the #48 to 11th for the Rougier contact. Chris Lulham had gone from sixth to second in the #3 Mercedes, and Andrea Frassineti's #66 Tresor Attempto Audi was third. Arthur Leclerc went from 13th to fourth in the #50 Ferrari.

Vermeulen kept the lead through the pit stops, while the #3 Mercedes lost out when Juncadella rejoined in sixth. A three-second lead over Neubauer grew to 4.454 seconds at the flag. Neubauer and Leclerc gave Ferrari its first Sprint Cup one-two, and Frassineti and Levi held third for Tresor Attempto's second outright podium of the weekend. Michelotto and Loris Spinelli took the Gold Cup win in fourth, and Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts were sixth in the #32 WRT BMW after climbing from 30th.

Cheever and Dempsey won again to take the Bronze Cup with a fourth straight victory, resisting Marschall's challenge in the #74 Kessel Ferrari. Tom Fleming and Louis Prette (Garage 59 McLaren) won the combined Endurance and Sprint Cup Gold title. WRT secured the teams' championship ahead of Lionspeed GP.

One race is left on the calendar: the Endurance Cup finale at Portimão on 16–18 October. A 60-car grid is expected, including Max Verstappen's series debut with his own Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing squad.