Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
Max Verstappen, Chris Lulham, and Ben Barnicoat struggled in qualifying for the three-hour GT World Challenge Europe season finale at Portimao, managing only 15th on the grid. Compounding the result for the No. 3 Verstappen Racing team was the fact that another Mercedes-AMG GT3—the No. 17 GetSpeed entry shared by Ralf Aron, Maximilian Gotz, and Fabian Schiller—qualified on the front row in ...…
Max Verstappen, Chris Lulham, and Ben Barnicoat secured 15th place on the grid for the final race of the GT World Challenge Europe season in Portimao. However, their efforts were overshadowed by Porsche's emotional pole position win, as the team's entry was second on the grid. The 2 Seas-operated Porsche squad, operated by Olivier Laine and Olivia Boutsen, lost team co-owner Marc van der Straten earlier in the year.
Chris Lulham, the most experienced driver among the trio, qualified 16th in his group but managed to close the gap to the session leader by only 0.441 seconds in Q3. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 experienced multiple issues during qualifying, including low ride height, overbouncing over bumps, and understeer through the hairpin turns at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve.
These problems resulted in an average fastest lap time of 1 minute and 42.624 seconds, placing the team in 15th. Despite the setback, Barnicoat expressed optimism for the upcoming race, emphasizing the team's determination to improve and secure a better position.
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