GTWCE @ Brands Hatch: Leclerc/Neubauer Take Race 1 as Lionspeed Dominate Race 2

Text: Rick Kiewiet

Images: SRO

The opening Sprint Cup round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe season at Brands Hatch delivered two contrasting races, a raft of post-race penalties, and a maiden outright series win for Lionspeed GP before the weekend was out.

Qualifying

Ricardo Feller put the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo on pole for Race 1 with a 1m22.722s on his first flying lap, the only driver to dip below 1m23s alongside Arthur Leclerc, who qualified second in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, 0.249s adrift. Matisse Lismont delivered a career-best third overall in the #30 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo to take Silver Cup pole, with Dani Juncadella fourth in the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing machine and Dylan Pereira seventh overall and Gold Cup polesitter in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

Bastian Buus then completed the sweep in Q2 with a 1m22.676s — the first time a single car had taken both Sprint Cup poles since Misano 2022. Chris Lulham was second for the #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG, 0.102s off pole, with Max Hesse third in the #46 Team WRT BMW, Maro Engel fourth in the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, and Gilles Magnus fifth and Gold Cup polesitter in the #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche. The session ended a minute early after Mateo Villagomez beached the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin in the gravel at Stirling's.

Race 1

The opening race was red-flagged before it had barely begun. On the first lap at Stirling's, Simon Birch's #914 Razoon Porsche made contact with the #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Robin Knutsson, spinning the Swede hard into the barriers. Knutsson walked away unharmed, but the armco required significant repairs, halting the race for around 15 minutes. Birch was subsequently handed a stop-and-go penalty that dropped him to the back of the field.

At the restart, Ricardo Feller led from pole in the #80 Lionspeed Porsche with Leclerc holding second and Juncadella running third in the #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG. Feller gradually extended his advantage, but the Lionspeed squad pitted as soon as the window opened, leaving Leclerc and Juncadella out on track. Juncadella stayed out two laps longer than the AF Corse car, using clear air to build enough of a gap that when he finally pitted, Lulham rejoined ahead of the #50 Ferrari. Meanwhile, Buus struggled immediately after taking over the #80 Porsche and the car soon retired with a steering problem.

A Full Course Yellow in the second half — deployed to recover the stranded #99 Tresor Audi of Alex Aka at Stirling's — bunched the field and placed Neubauer right on Lulham's tail. The Ferrari never found a way past, however, and Lulham eased clear once racing resumed. He then absorbed a five-second penalty for a pit infringement by building a buffer of over six seconds in the closing laps, crossing the line 1.2 seconds to the good after the time was applied.

What appeared to be a maiden win for the Verstappen-backed outfit quickly unravelled. Lulham's #3 car was among nine cars handed a 30-second post-race penalty for yellow flag infringements, dropping it to 13th. The #50 AF Corse Ferrari of Leclerc and Neubauer was promoted to victory — a first GTWC Europe win for Leclerc. The #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Morris Schuring and Dorian Boccolacci inherited second, with the #32 Team WRT BMW of Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde third after recovering from 12th on the grid.

The Silver Cup fell to the #9 Pure Rxcing Porsche of Aliaksandr Malykhin and Aleksei Nesov in seventh overall, while Gold Cup honours went to Tommaso Mosca and Matias Zagazeta in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, classified eighth.

Race 2

Lionspeed made no mistake second time around. Buus held the lead into Turn 1 from pole and pulled steadily clear of Lulham's #3 Verstappen Mercedes-AMG during the opening stint, building a margin of around three seconds before the pit window opened. The German squad added further time through the stops, and despite Juncadella setting the fastest lap in pursuit after taking over from Lulham, Feller was never seriously troubled. The #80 Porsche crossed the line 3.073s clear for the team's maiden outright series win.

The #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG settled for second, some solace for a crew that had crossed the line first in Race 1 only to be penalised out of the result. Winward Racing's #48 Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel and Lucas Auer completed the podium despite a five-second penalty of their own for a pit infringement — Auer building sufficient margin over fourth place to absorb it. The #46 Team WRT BMW of Valentino Rossi and Max Hesse was fourth, ahead of the #59 Garage 59 McLaren and the #32 Team WRT BMW. Kelvin van der Linde had gained four places on the opening lap from tenth to make the #32's progress look rather more straightforward than it was. The #31 WRT BMW was seventh.

The #30 Team WRT BMW of Lismont and Montenegro claimed Silver Cup victory in eighth overall, making amends for losing the class win in Race 1 to a post-race penalty. Gold Cup honours went to Simon Gachet and Romain Andriolo in the #555 CSA Racing McLaren, tenth overall. The #50 AF Corse Ferrari of Race 1 winners Leclerc and Neubauer had an anonymous run to 15th.

With no crew managing two strong results across the day, the championship picture is tight. Buus and Feller lead by two points from Leclerc and Neubauer, with Auer/Engel and van der Linde/Weerts a further three back.

Next Up

Before the Sprint Cup resumes, most of the field heads to the Belgian Ardennes for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa Prologue on 19-20 May, followed by the Endurance Cup round at Monza on 29-31 May and the 24 Hours of Spa itself on 24-28 June. The next Sprint Cup round takes place at Misano on 17-19 July.

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