MOTORSPORT – BAHRAINI-BRITISH GT team 2 Seas Motorsport showcased their strong pace yesterday with their two-car entry to kick off the opening round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe, taking place at Circuit Paul Ricard in France.
2 Seas’s #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, run in collaboration with Team Verstappen Racing, which is owned by four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen, topped the overall timesheet in the first free practice of the new campaign. They are competing in the series’ top-tier Pro Cup.
Meanwhile, the team’s other contender, their #222 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, ranked fifth amongst Bronze Cup participants as they continued to build on their early season form.
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, which will feature both endurance and sprint events.
The curtain-raiser is an endurance meeting, to be headlined by a six-hour race, scheduled to flag off tonight at 7pm, Bahrain time, and finish at 1am early tomorrow morning.
Qualifying will be held from 1.05pm today, also Bahrain time, to set the grid for the highly anticipated season-opener.
Sharing the driving duties in 2 Seas’s #3 entry are Briton Chris Lulham, Spaniard Daniel Juncadella, and Frenchman Jules Gounon.
They clocked a best lap time yesterday of one minute 54.690 seconds around Circuit Paul Ricard’s 5.771-kilometre track in free practice one, which was held in daylight conditions in the afternoon.
They were 0.064 seconds quicker than the #84 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Eastalent Racing, who are also Pro Cup runners, while Silver Cup contenders Pure Rxcing were classified third overall 0.269s adrift in their #9 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.
2 Seas’s #222 crew features the all-British triumvirate of Charles Dawson, Kiern Jewiss, and Reece Barr.
Their fastest lap in the first free practice was 1:55.583, which put them in 32nd overall amongst the 56 cars that hit the track in the session.
Razoon-more than racing were the Bronze Cup leaders, putting in a lap of 1:55.092 in their #914 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo to take fourth on the overall times. Rutronik Racing in their #97 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo were second in class at 1:55.454, and Winward Racing’s #87 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo were third with a quickest lap of 1:55.510.
Meanwhile, in yesterday’s free practice two, held at night, 2 Seas’s #3 car was classified eighth in the Pro Cup and 17th overall with a best lap of 1:55.609.
The #222 challenger finished the session 12th in class and 45th overall after clocking a fastest lap time of 1:56.080.
Earlier in the day yesterday, in the Bronze Test, the #222 crew were second on the session’s timesheet with a top time of 1:55.216 – just 0.151s from pace-setters Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn in their #56 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo.
This weekend’s meeting is the first of five endurance rounds in the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe. 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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