Why Did Verstappen Racing Fall Behind at Portimao?

Max Verstappen's eponymous Mercedes-AMG team completed qualifying in 15th place at the season finale of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at Portimão. The background is stark: a setup change made before qualifying to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, which had looked fast but restless in the two free practice sessions, put the car into a window the Algarve circuit did not want, and the average of the three drivers' lap times remained at 1m42.624s.

Why did Verstappen Racing fall behind at Portimao?

The short answer: the setup window. The team made a change to the car before qualifying, and that choice clashed with the character of the circuit. The result was a qualifying session where the pace existed but could not be brought together anywhere. Since the grid is determined by averaging each driver's fastest lap in the three-segment format, no single driver could salvage it either; all three lapped in the same restless car.

Portimão is an unforgiving place for GT3 cars. The wide hairpin corners, the bumpy straights and the track temperature that changes rapidly toward sunset mercilessly expose where the setup stands. Verstappen Racing's car showed two distinct problems throughout qualifying: excessive sparking caused by a ride height that appeared too low on the straights, and bouncing over bumps that unsettled the body. At corner exits there was a two-sided imbalance: understeer on entry, oversteer on exit.

This picture translated visibly into 21st and 16th in qualifying, with a comparatively better third segment. Ben Barnicoat finished the opening segment 0.679 seconds behind the reference, and Chris Lulham let segment leader Boccolacci go 0.799 seconds clear in his group. Verstappen left the smallest deficit, 0.441 seconds; with the help of the falling temperature at sunset, the team's fastest individual lap came at 1m42.093s. The average, however, wrote 15th place.

Sparks, bouncing and a missed window

The technical side of it is the kind that thirty-year race followers know well: when the front splitter gets too close to the ground, the spark show begins on the straights and tire efficiency quietly erodes. The team's car ran too low for performance in this state; the front surface scraping the ground meant both drag and a constant compromise. Over the bumps, the bouncing undermined the driver's trust in braking points; in the Algarve's long, corner-exit sweeps, this trust gap is written directly into the lap time.

Strikingly, the problem was not the brand. The GetSpeed team, running the same manufacturer's car, took the second spot on the front row. So the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO could be fast at Portimão; that speed just existed within the narrow window known as the setup window, and Verstappen Racing missed it. The assessment was made in that direction: a fast but difficult-to-drive car had been seen in the two free practice sessions, and the changes made before qualifying backfired. Later, with a minor grid correction in the qualifying classification, the team started the race from 13th.

The other side of qualifying day: Boutsen VDS's emotional pole

The day's news was not only what was left behind. The #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche 911 GT3 R, with consistent laps from Morris Schuring, Dorian Boccolacci and Alessio Picariello across all three segments, won pole with an average of 1m42.071s, and it became the team's first Endurance Cup pole. This result has a separate meaning: the team's partner Marc van der Straten, owner of the "VDS" in the name, had passed away in July at the age of 78. The team, led by Olivier Laine and Olivia Boutsen, dedicated this pole to him.

The rest of the qualifying table read like a good report on the health of the category. There were six manufacturers in the top 10: three Ferraris, two Mercedes-AMGs, two Porsches, and one each of Ford, McLaren and Aston Martin. Exactly 29 cars were within 1 second of the overall fastest time. Compared to my earlier assumption, such density was once unthinkable in endurance series where a single brand used to dominate; now it has become the norm. Lionspeed Porsche finished 3rd, HRT's Ford Mustang GT3 Evo 4th, AF Corse's Ferrari 5th and Winward's Mercedes-AMG 6th.

BMW had a bad day: the best representative, Team WRT's car, was left in 14th while Rowe Racing was 35th. When Valentino Rossi's Q2 lap was deleted for track limits, the #46 WRT dropped to the very back of the grid. On the championship side, however, there was no tension; Winward's duo of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel had secured the title at the Nürburgring, and with the acceptance of the appeal against the Misano disqualification, their overall championship was also confirmed.

Why and with whom is Verstappen racing in the GT project?

Verstappen's presence in the GT scene is part of the team project he owns outside of F1. The outing at Portimão was defined as his official debut in the category, and the team raced under the operation of 2 Seas Motorsport. The season planning had also been carefully laid out: he confirmed he would run at the Portimão finale in December 2025, and in May 2026 at the Nürburgring 24 Hours he led until an rear axle failure eliminated him with four hours remaining in the race. So this project is not just a side venture carrying brand value; it is a business Verstappen genuinely wants results from.

The Portimão lineup was also a sign of this. Normally Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella race alongside him; since both could not take part due to their WEC commitments, Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat stepped onto the grid. Lulham is a regular driver in Verstappen Racing cars in 2026 and is considered the team's most experienced Mercedes-AMG GT3 driver. Barnicoat, meanwhile, is one of the established names in the GT scene with a Lexus background. The lineup was not lacking on paper; what it missed was the setup window on track.

How is the GTWC format different from F1?

Instead of the single-driver, single-lap qualifying format familiar from F1, there is a completely different setup here:

• Each car races with three drivers; qualifying also has three segments, and the grid is determined by the average of the three drivers' fastest laps.
• The race distance is 3 hours; there are at least two mandatory pit stops involving fuel, tire, and driver changes.
• Teamwork is a far heavier decisive factor than a single fast lap: stint management, traffic, and the pit plan decide the result.

The qualifying average setup worked exactly against Verstappen Racing at Portimão. In a format where, in F1, one driver could make up the difference, here all three need to be good at the same time; with an unsettled car, that is nearly impossible.

Race day: the setup improved, the penalty came

The three-hour race starting at 17:00 on Saturday evening confirmed the team's diagnosis. The source of the mistake made before qualifying was openly discussed: the car was producing too much oversteer for performance, and the team had not secured the position it deserved. The setup was corrected for the race, and the car showed the expected competitiveness. In the first stint, Barnicoat skillfully avoided the start chaos and moved the team forward, while Lulham also started strongly.

Then things got complicated. The opportunistic maneuver Lulham made against the car ahead cost a drive-through penalty, and the team's chance to fight for the top positions ended at that point. Verstappen got into the car for the final 45 minutes starting from P24; he recovered the pace and carried the finish up to 9th place, said in his post-race assessment that he had enjoyed it, and acknowledged that the penalty was deserved. The season finale was won by the GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG; Lionspeed finished second. This result confirmed once again the diagnosis from qualifying day: the problem was not the brand, but the setup decision.

After the race, a separate discussion arose: Verstappen condemned the online attacks directed at Lulham, who received the penalty, with a strong public statement. This scene can be considered the clearest statement made about the team culture beyond the race results; it is no coincidence that a four-time world champion driver stands so openly behind his young teammate.

The lesson of Portimão: missing the window proved costly

The account from this file goes beyond what is visible. 15th place was not a bad car, it was the price of a wrong decision; even the pole-holding team stated they were surprised that Verstappen Racing was faster than its qualifying result suggested, and the recovery to 9th in the race confirmed it. In the GT3 world there is such a thing as a setup window, and Portimão remained a good example showing that this window can determine a race result, not a grid number.

The record-breaking interest is also worth a separate note: the season finale broke the category's record with 9.7 million views on the live broadcast. It seems the Verstappen effect has rubbed off on the GT scene as well; next season, this project finding its setup windows more accurately will benefit both the team and the category.

Sources

• Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
• Boutsen VDS bags brilliant maiden pole for Portimão finale
• Max reflects on GTWC race in Portimao
• Verstappen has troubled qualifying in latest GT outing
• Verstappen starting 15th for GT return; Boutsen VDS Porsche takes Portimao pole
• Verstappen dwelling on positives from challenging Portimao GT outing
• Verstappen breaks silence on Lulham abuse
• Portimão pole-sitters slightly surprised by Verstappen Racing
• How Verstappen fared at the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe finale in Portimao
• Max Verstappen GT World Challenge: How to watch live