MOTORSPORT – BAHRAINI-BRITISH GT team 2 Seas Motorsport had both their cars in the top 10 of their respective classes yesterday in the concluding test session of the official prologue, held ahead of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe.
2 Seas, running their #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in collaboration with Team Verstappen Racing, which is owned by four-time Formula One drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen, were sixth amongst Pro Cup contenders and eighth overall in the day’s lone four-hour running, held in dry daylight conditions at Circuit Paul Ricard in France.
Meanwhile, 2 Seas’s other challenger, their #222 Mercedes-AMG GT3, was classified ninth in Bronze Cup times, while going 36th overall from the massive 59-car field.
2 Seas, co-owned by Bahrain’s Shaikh Isa bin Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, are competing with their two-car entry for the full 2026 calendar in this season’s GT World Challenge Europe.
With the completion of the prologue yesterday, the championship now heads for the first of its 10 rounds, scheduled from today until Sunday at the same French track.
Sharing the driving duties in 2 Seas’s #3 entry this campaign are Briton Chris Lulham, Spaniard Daniel Juncadella, and Frenchman Jules Gounon.
They clocked a fastest lap time of one minute 55.088 seconds during yesterday’s test, which was 0.736 seconds off the mark of the Eastalent Racing’s #84 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, who topped the overall timesheet as another Pro Cup team.
Boutsen VDS’s #2 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo followed 0.283s behind, while Lionspeed GP’s #80 car, also a Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, was third 0.289s back. Both squads are also competing in the series’ Pro Cup.
2 Seas’s #222 crew, featuring the all-British triumvirate of Charles Dawson, Kiern Jewiss, and Reece Barr, had a quickest lap of 1:55.433 – 1.081s from the overall leaders.
Setting the pace amongst the Bronze Cup competitors was the #91 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Herberth Motorsport, who finished fourth amongst all runners with a best mark of 1:54.708.
Rutronik Racing’s #97 entrant and Lionspeed GP’s #89 contender, both also Porsche 911 GT3 R Evos, were second and third, respectively, in class. The Rutronik crew had a fastest lap of 1:55.117 while Lionspeed posted a mark of 1:55.210.
2 Seas will now be looking to make a positive start to their 2026 GT World Challenge Europe campaign in this weekend’s curtain-raiser, which will be headlined by a six-hour endurance race. It is scheduled to flag off at 7pm, Bahrain time, tomorrow night and wrap up at 1am early Sunday morning.
Today, an hour-long Bronze Cup test session will kick off the weekend’s action at 10am, followed by free practice one at 3.25pm and the second free practice at 8.25pm, each lasting an hour-and-a-half.
Prior to the race start tomorrow evening, qualifying will be held from 1.05pm. All times are Bahrain.
The meeting is the first of five endurance rounds in the championship. Other endurance events will be held at Monza in Italy in May; at Spa in Belgium in June, which will be a 24-hour race; at the Nurburgring in Germany in August; and at Algarve in Portugal in October.
Sprint weekends will take place at Brands Hatch in the UK next month; at Misano Adriatico in Italy in July; at Magny-Cours in France in July and August; at Zandvoort in the Netherlands in September; and at Barcelona in Spain in October.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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