Max Verstappen has been given a reprimand after his first GT World Challenge Europe practice session, following a collision with another car in FP1.
The four-time Formula 1 world champion is making his debut in the GTWCE this weekend in its Portimao finale.
He is behind the wheel of the No.3 Team Verstappen Mercedes AMG he raced in at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring earlier this year.
After the opening official practice session of the weekend on Friday morning, Verstappen and the No.3 crew were 20th in the standings, albeit just 0.4s from top spot.
Max Verstappen, GTWCE Portimao 2026
© GT World Challenge Europe
However, it wasn’t a clean session for Verstappen.
Verstappen clashes with another driver
Verstappen tipped the No.25 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Ezequiel Perez Companc into a spin at Portimao’s Turn 3 early in the session.
The Red Bull driver was on his first proper flying lap when he made contact trying to go up the inside of the No.25 car into Turn 3.
The stewards looked into the incident and have apportioned blame to Verstappen.
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He has been given a reprimand and a Behaviour Warning Point. If Verstappen receives two more of these, he will be given a five-place grid drop in the next GTWCE race he competes in.
If he gets four, it’s a 10-place drop, and if five points are awarded, the penalty is a driver-through.
Perez says he was concentrating on the cars ahead of him at the time and wasn’t aware of Verstappen coming on his inside line.
The above clip of the clash shows both cars being forced into avoiding action.
Verstappen is reported to have argued that he was expecting the Audi to remain on his outside line.
The stewards agreed with both sides of the argument and analysed the mitigating circumstances, which is why Verstappen’s penalty is lenient.
Verstappen will be back in action from 12:45pm BST for the 90-minute FP2 session, before qualifying takes place later today.
The race gets underway at 5pm BST on Saturday.
Verstappen is sharing a car with Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat this weekend, with regular drivers Dani Juncadella and Joules Gounon in Barcelona for the FIA World Endurance Championship round.
Lewis joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having been a journalist for five years covering MotoGP for the Motorsport Network. In February of 2026, he became Head of Editorial.