Verstappen climbs aboard the #3 Mercedes-AMG at the 2026 24 Hours of Nürburgring, where the car led before a driveshaft failure. Photo: SRO / GT World Challenge Europe
Max Verstappen’s GT3 career fits on an index card, and every line on it was written on the Nordschleife. Line one: a debut win at NLS9 in September 2025, sharing an Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 with Chris Lulham. Line two: first across the line at NLS2 in March 2026, then disqualified about two hours after the podium when the Tyre App showed his Mercedes-AMG crew had used seven sets of tyres instead of the permitted six. Line three: the lead of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in May, gone with three hours to run when a driveshaft failed.
So the pace question was answered a while ago. What hasn’t been answered is whether Verstappen can do it somewhere that isn’t 25 kilometres of German forest, under a sporting rulebook he has never raced, against a grid that is not doing anyone any favours. This weekend’s GT World Challenge Europe finale at Portimão is where that gets tested. It is his series debut, in the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing GT3 EVO he shares with Lulham and Ben Barnicoat, and it comes less than a week after he finally won the Singapore Grand Prix at the 10th attempt.
Why he is in the car at all
Verstappen is not here as a guest star. He owns the team. Verstappen Racing joined GT World Challenge Europe in 2025, took its first overall win in a Sprint Cup race at Magny-Cours and its first Endurance Cup podium at the Nürburgring, and stepped up to the Pro class this season. When a calendar clash pulled the team’s regular Endurance Cup drivers away from this round, the boss filled the seat himself. We covered how that driver puzzle developed, and how it was resolved in early October.
That matters for how to read the result. A team owner who drives is judged on two scoreboards: his own stints, and whether the car is still in one piece for the other two drivers. Lulham is the full-season regular and the man who shared that NLS9 win. Barnicoat brings years of top-level GT experience. Verstappen’s job is to be fast without being the reason the team’s highest-profile weekend of the year ends early.
Portimão asks different questions than the Nordschleife
Verstappen’s GT3 racing to date has been long-lap, multi-class endurance work on the Nürburgring, where traffic comes in waves and a full stint covers relatively few laps. Portimão is a conventional grand prix circuit, and the GT World race is a three-hour Endurance Cup contest starting at 17:00 local time on Saturday, with the flag due at 20:00. With 61 cars entered on a lap a fraction the length of the Nordschleife, the leaders will be lapping slower cars constantly from early in the race. The time is won or lost in where you choose to pass and how much tyre you spend doing it, not in one heroic lap.
The circuit itself is not new to him. Verstappen finished third in the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix and second in 2021, and when his entry was announced he said “I love the track and being in Portugal.” Knowing the layout from an F1 car helps with braking references and the blind crests. It does not tell you how a GT3 car, with ABS and traction control, wants to be driven over those same crests on worn tyres in hour two.
The NLS2 disqualification is the useful lesson here. That one was not about driving; it was about process. GT racing punishes administrative errors as hard as slow laps, from tyre allocations to minimum driving times to pit-stop procedures. A team stepping into the Pro class, running a one-off driver line-up, has more of those boxes to tick than most. Watch the #3 pit stops as closely as the #3 lap times.
The title is settled, which makes this harder for him
Here is the detail that changes the tone of the weekend: the Endurance Cup drivers’ title is already gone. Maro Engel, Lucas Auer and Luca Stolz of Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter wrapped it up at the Nürburgring. The series’ official preview frames Portimão as a race for victory for the Pro crews, while the Overall, Gold Cup and Bronze Cup titles are still to be decided.
For the top Pro crews, that removes the usual reason to race conservatively. Nobody at the sharp end is protecting a points lead, and nobody needs to settle for fourth. Plenty of very good drivers would also very much like to be able to say they beat a four-time Formula 1 world champion in a GT car. The series counts more than 70 Platinum- or Gold-rated professionals on the entry list. The real story is the handful of crews with a direct line back to Verstappen’s own record.
The people who picked up his Nordschleife leftovers
Maro Engel, #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter. When Verstappen’s car stopped at the 24 Hours, the win went to the #80 Mercedes-AMG (no relation to Lionspeed’s #80 Porsche) of Engel, Stolz, Fabian Schiller and Maxime Martin, from 20th on the grid. Engel now arrives as Endurance Cup champion in the same model of car Verstappen will drive. Same car, same Balance of Performance, so there is no handy excuse if the #48 is quicker.
Jordan Pepper, #32 Team WRT BMW. Pepper inherited the NLS2 win in March after Verstappen’s tyre-count disqualification. At Portimão he shares a BMW with Charles Weerts, who holds a record four Sprint Cup titles, and Kelvin van der Linde. On paper that may be the strongest crew in the field.
Lionspeed GP, #80 Porsche. This season’s 24 Hours of Spa winners, with Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus fresh from sealing the Sprint Cup title at Barcelona and Thomas Preining just crowned DTM champion again. They have been the form team all year.
And then there is the box-office crew. Valentino Rossi, a three-time Sprint Cup race winner, shares the #46 WRT BMW with factory drivers Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen. Rossi is the one driver on the grid whose fame matches Verstappen’s, and any on-track meeting between the #3 and the #46 will get replayed far more often than whoever is fighting for the lead at the time. It is worth remembering, though, that the #46 is there to win too, not to put on a show.
Further down the order there is depth everywhere: Mirko Bortolotti leading Lamborghini’s effort with TGI Team by GRT, Nicki Thiim in Comtoyou Racing’s Aston Martin, Arthur Leclerc sharing AF Corse’s #50 Ferrari with Lilou Wadoux and Albert Costa, and one-off entries for Jack Hawksworth in a Garage 59 McLaren and BMW pair Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann at ROWE Racing. Verstappen is not the only part-timer, but he is the only one whose name is above the garage.
What a good weekend looks like
A win would be the headline, but it is not the only measure. The honest benchmarks are simpler. Is the #3 competitive with the other Mercedes Pro cars in qualifying? Do Verstappen’s stints hold their pace into the back half as the tyres drop off? And does the car reach the flag without a penalty, a pit-lane infringement or a scrutineering problem? If all three answers are yes, the index card gets its first clean result away from the Nürburgring.
There is a longer game too. Verstappen has been open about his interest in endurance racing, and we looked at which 24-hour races he did and didn’t rule out for 2027. Three hours at Portimão will not settle that, but it is his first GT World Challenge Europe start. If his team intends to be a serious Pro-class entry rather than a celebrity side project, results like this one are the ones that matter.
How to follow it
- Friday, October 16: Free Practice 1 at 08:45, Free Practice 2 at 12:45, Qualifying at 17:55 (all local time in Portugal).
- Saturday, October 17: the three-hour Endurance Cup race starts at 17:00 local, which is 12:00 noon Eastern, and is scheduled to finish at 20:00.
- Streaming: every session is live and free on the GT World YouTube channel, in multiple languages.
- At the track: a weekend pass costs €25 and a Saturday ticket €15, with grandstands, paddock and pit walk included and free entry for children aged 16 and under. GT2 European Series, GT4 European Series and McLaren Trophy Europe fill out the support programme.
The F1 crowd will tune in to watch Verstappen. The more interesting thing to watch is the stopwatch around him, and whether anyone in the pit lane with a #3 on their overalls makes a mistake. Verstappen has already shown he can win a GT3 race on the Nordschleife. Portimão is about proving he can do it anywhere.
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