Garage 59 ended McLaren’s nine-year wait with a poised, clinical drive during the GTWC Europe race in Barcelona. Dean MacDonald launched from pole and set the tone, stringing together fastest laps as the #58 McLaren eased clear. A safety car erased that early cushion and reshuffled strategies, and when Adam Smalley climbed aboard he rejoined in the thick of traffic. The tension rose again when the #88 Tresor Attempto Audi crashed between Turns 8 and 9, prompting another neutralization that reset the race for a final act.
Louis Prette took over for the run to the flag and never wavered. He controlled the pace, eased away with clean, efficient laps, and crossed the line more than eighteen seconds to the good. It marked the trio’s first overall victory and McLaren’s first Endurance Cup win since 2016, with the #777 AlManar BMW and #98 ROWE BMW following them home—an intriguing footnote given that both the winning McLaren and AlManar’s podium finisher ran in the Gold Cup.
One-point swing at Turn 5
The title story built in the pack behind. Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter entered the last hour of the GTWC Europe race in Barcelona leading both the Endurance Cup and the combined standings, yet an early off brought a penalty and the outright pace never fully arrived. Rutronik’s #96 Porsche wrote the counterpoint. Alessio Picariello burst from tenth to fourth at the start, only for the car to slide back during the middle phase and force Sven Müller into a hard, determined recovery.
Patric Niederhauser received the #96 car for the final hour, back in tenth, with the arithmetic painfully simple: find three places or lose the crown. Two fell quickly, the third demanded commitment. With the clock inside ten minutes, he sent the Porsche down the inside of Harry King’s Verstappen.com Racing Aston Martin at Turn 5 and made it stick, rising to seventh. That one move flipped the standings, delivered the Endurance Cup by a single point, and secured Porsche’s first overall GTWC Europe teams’ and drivers’ titles after the race in Barcelona.
BMW’s steady rise
The combined championship shifted as well. Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde guided the #32 BMW to sixth at the flag and edged Maro Engel and Lucas Auer on points. Their day began deep in the field, with them starting 21st, but a sharp call under the first safety car unlocked the race for the team and third driver Ugo de Wilde. From there the trio climbed methodically, took what the traffic and timing offered, and finished exactly where they needed to seal the season after claiming the overall Sprint Cup championship in Valencia.
Gold sealed, Silver saved, Bronze celebrated
Gold Cup honours fell into place with Verstappen.com Racing. Harry King, Vermeulen, and Lulham finished eighth overall and third in class, their afternoon defined by King’s stubborn defending until Niederhauser arrived with the title at stake. Silver swung wildly. The #42 Century Motorsport BMW spun at Turn 1 and dropped to the tail, handing the initiative to the #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG, yet the picture changed again as the race matured.
Century mounted a gritty climb to fifth in class and kept the championship, while Aurélien Panis and César Gazeau still retained their full-season Silver Cup crown. The class win on the day went to Tresor Attempto’s #99 Audi of Alex Aka, Leonardo Moncini, and Sebastian Øgaard, which converted strong pace into fifth overall. Bronze produced more reason for Rutronik to smile as Antares Au, Loek Hartog, and Morris Schuring steered the #97 Porsche to the class victory, though the title belonged to Kessel Racing, whose #74 Ferrari of Dustin Blattner, Conrad Laursen, and Dennis Marschall banked third in class to close out a commanding campaign.
Results: GTWC Europe Barcelona Race
