Ben Green and Thierry Vermeulen won the final GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup race of 2026 at Barcelona in the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. They led a Ferrari one-two ahead of AF Corse, while Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller ended the season as Sprint Cup champions for Lionspeed GP despite a first-corner hit that left them a lap down.
Turn 1 melee catches the champions
The storm that soaked Saturday’s race had passed, and Race 2 ran on a dry track at sunset. With Qualifying 2 cancelled, Buus and Feller started as champions whatever the outcome of Winward Racing’s appeal over Misano.
Maro Engel made the best start in the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and led down the front straight, but Green retook first place under braking for Turn 1. Chris Lulham overshot the corner in the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, handed the lead back to Green and settled into second.
Green’s move set off a chain reaction. Feller got caught up in the Turn 1 melee and damaged the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R. A little further on, Arthur Rougier’s #111 CSA Racing McLaren 720S GT3 took hits from all sides, and Engel, rejoining from the escape road, sent it into a spin. Feller had to take to the gravel to avoid it. An unscheduled pit stop later cost the #80 a lap, and the champions were classified 36th.
Pit stops settle the podium
A lightning stop kept the #69 Ferrari in front once Vermeulen had taken over. The #3 Mercedes was less fortunate: a slow stop cost Dani Juncadella second place and dropped him to sixth on the road.
That promoted Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer to second in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, with Ariel Levi and Andrea Frassineti third in the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3. The Audi had stopped early, but the undercut did not gain it much ground.
The race largely settled down after the stops. Vermeulen finished 4.454sec clear of Neubauer after 33 laps for Emil Frey Racing’s second win of 2026.
Lucas Auer brought the #48 home fifth, but a ten-second penalty for Engel’s collision with Rougier’s McLaren dropped the car to 11th. That moved Juncadella and Lulham up to fifth, ahead of Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde in the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.
Second place was never going to bring Neubauer and Leclerc the title, but it closed a successful Sprint Cup season: runners-up in the race and in the championship.
Silver and Gold winners at the sharp end
Levi and Frassineti ran at the front of the field all race and earned an overall podium on top of Silver Cup victory. It was Tresor Attempto Racing’s second big result of the weekend, after the #99 sister car won Race 1 outright.
Loris Spinelli and Mattia Michelotto were up there throughout as well and took Gold Cup honours with fourth overall in the #163 VSR Lamborghini Temerario GT3.
Bronze Cup victory went to Eddie Cheever and Peter Dempsey in the #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. It capped a huge weekend for the team and decided the Bronze Cup title. Dempsey, back in racing after a long hiatus, starred in Race 1 and then set up Cheever for the class win in Race 2.
The other class titles were already settled. Tommaso Mosca and Matías Zagazeta had wrapped up the Gold Cup on Saturday, despite the best efforts of Alex Aka and Dylan Pereira in Barcelona. Ignacio Montenegro and Matisse Lismont had sealed the Silver Cup at Zandvoort. Team WRT took the teams’ championship ahead of Lionspeed GP.
Overall title goes to Portimão
That concludes the 2026 Sprint Cup season. One race remains: the Endurance Cup finale at Portimão on 16–18 October, which closes out the Endurance season and decides the overall GT World Challenge Europe championship.
Engel and Auer lead that classification on 131.5 points, 29.5 clear of Buus and Feller with a maximum of 26 on offer, which makes them provisional champions. The Misano appeal could still change that. If the disqualification is upheld, the Winward duo lose 9.5 points and their lead shrinks to 20. Buus and Feller would then have to win at Portimão, with Engel and Auer finishing eighth or lower.
