MOTORSPORT – BAHRAINI-British motor racing team 2 Seas Motorsport set a blistering pace yesterday in the first free practice of round three in the 2026 GT World Challenge (GTWC) Europe, being held this weekend at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy.
Spearheading 2 Seas’ two-car entry, the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo – operated by 2 Seas in cooperation with Team Verstappen Racing, owned by four-time Formula One drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen – topped the overall timesheet while leading all Pro class runners in the opening hour-and-a-half session, with the trio of Daniel Juncadella, Chris Lulham, and Jules Gounon sharing the duties behind the wheel.
2 Seas’ #222 Mercedes-AMG – driven by Reece Barr, Charles Dawson, and Kiern Jewiss – followed in 13th amongst Bronze category competitors and 51st overall in the stacked 57-car field. Both crews remained competitive in yesterday’s second 90-minute free practice, with the #3 car going sixth in Pro and 16th overall and the #222 placing an impressive third in Bronze and 24th overall.
The stage is now set for qualifying today and the meeting’s main event, the three-hour endurance race. Qualifying is scheduled to begin at 10.35am and it will set the grid for the race, which will flag off at 4.30pm with a rip-roaring rolling start. The chequered flag will then come down at 7.30pm. All times are Bahrain.
In yesterday’s opening practice, Juncadella-Lulham-Gounon clocked a fastest lap of one minute 46.081 seconds to rise to the top of the leaderboard. It was also the quickest time of the day.
They narrowly pipped Steller Motorsport’s #24 crew of Antoine Doquin, Dennis Lind, and Mikkel Mac, driving their Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3 R in the Gold class, to first place by a mere 0.028 seconds.
2 Seas’ Barr-Dawson-Jewiss were just 1.081s from their pace-setting teammates. They had a quickest lap time of 1:47.162. Leading the Bronze Cup were Riccardo Pera, Antares Au, and Sven Muller, driving their #97 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo for Rutronik Racing to a best lap of 1:46.308.
Meanwhile, in yesterday’s second practice session, Juncadella-Lulham-Gounon registered a top lap of 1:46.595. They were 0.280s from Horatio Fitz-Simon, Maxwell Lynn, and Ben Dorr of Team RJN, who topped the overall timesheet driving their #23 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in the Silver class. They had a fastest mark of 1:46.315.
Barr-Dawson-Jewiss had a best time of 1:46.674 in the session. They were not far behind Bronze class leaders Marvin Dienst, Gabriele Piana, and Rinat Salikhov of Winward Racing, behind the wheel of their #87 Mercedes-AMG to a fastest lap of 1:46.481.
2 Seas, co-owned by Bahrain’s Shaikh Isa bin Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, are competing with their two-car entry for the GTWC Europe’s full 2026 calendar, which features both endurance and sprint events.
This ongoing third round of the season marks the second of five endurance meetings. Others will be held in Belgium next month, in Germany in August, and in Portugal in October.
A sprint weekend has already taken place in the UK earlier this month, with others to follow in Italy in July, in France in July and August, in the Netherlands in September, and in Spain in October.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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