Max Verstappen charges to top-10 finish in GT World Challenge Europe debut

Max Verstappen was only able to take his No.3 Team Verstappen Mercedes to xth in his debut race in the GT World Challenge Europe at Portimao.

The four-time world champion featured in the category this weekend due to the FIA World Endurance Championship clash in Barcelona removing Joules Gounon and Dani Juncadella from the No.3’s line-up.

At the end of the opening stint, Ben Barnicoat was able to take the No.3 car to 2nd place on track before he pitted, after starting from 14th place. During his 66-minute run, Barnicoat was able to drag the Mercedes up the order in the opening hour of the three-hour race.

For the start of the second stint, Chris Lulham took over behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing machine. The British driver came back out on track in 8th, and towards the end of his stint, he made contact with the No.11 Mercedes and was given a drive-through penalty, which put him down to 16th place.

The final stint of the race was run by Max Verstappen, as he took over the No.3 Mercedes with 45 minutes left on the clock, and came out of the pits in 24th place. After making his way into the top 20, a safety car nullified his progress after the No.46 BMW ended up in the gravel.

When the safety car came in, Verstappen found himself in 19th place and had 23 minutes to try and improve his final position for his debut in GT World Challenge Europe. 

The Dutch driver made steady progress throughout his sprint to the finish after the safety car. However, he was able to fight through the field and take his No.3 Mercedes to 9th place at the chequered flag.

It was Fabian Schiller who took victory as the No.17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed were the first to take the chequered flag after the three-hour race around Portimao.

Completing the podium were the No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche and No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche in second and third place.

The top five were made up of the No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari in fourth place, and the No.30 Team WRT BMW in fifth place.

Joining Verstappen in the top ten were the No.59 McLaren in sixth, the No.998 BMW in seventh, the No.6 Mercedes in eighth, and the No.50 Ferrari rounding out the top ten.