MOTORSPORT – BAHRAINI-British motor racing team 2 Seas Motorsport showed impressive pace yesterday as track action got underway in the fifth round of the 2026 GT World Challenge (GTWC) Europe.
2 Seas had both their cars amongst the leaders in the two-hour test session at Misano World Circuit in Italy. The race weekend is a sprint meeting, which is set to feature a pair of two-hour races.
2 Seas’ number three Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo – run in collaboration with Team Verstappen Racing, owned by four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen – were fastest amongst Pro class runners yesterday while going second-quickest overall.
Meanwhile, 2 Seas’ number 222 Mercedes-AMG ranked second amongst Bronze category competitors while going 12th in the test’s 43-car field.
Both 2 Seas contenders are back in action all throughout the race weekend.
Today, they will be hitting the track in a pair of practice sessions. They will then take part in qualifying for the round’s first race tomorrow, which is scheduled to flag off at 9.30pm, Bahrain time.
Race two will then take place on Saturday at 3.30pm, Bahrain time, with a second qualifying preceding it.
2 Seas’ number three Mercedes-AMG is being driven in Misano by the pair of Andorran-French ace Jules Gounon and Spaniard Dani Juncadella, while the duties in the number 222 car is shared between the British tandem of Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss.
Dawson and Jewiss had helped 2 Seas claim the GT3 drivers’ and teams’ title double in last season’s British GT Championship, before moving on to the GTWC Europe with 2 Seas for 2026.
In yesterday’s test, Gounon and Juncadella clocked a best lap time of one minute 32.811 seconds to place second on the session’s classification. They were just under three-tenths of a second from overall pace-setters and Gold class entrants Tresor Attempto Racing, whose number 99 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II topped the timesheet with a best lap of 1:32.567. Team WRT followed in third overall and were second behind 2 Seas amongst the Pro runners, with a fastest mark of 1:32.883.
In the Bronze category, 2 Seas’ Dawson and Jewiss had a best lap time of 1:33.273. They were classified just over two-tenths behind leaders in class GetSpeed Team Dubai, running their number 12 Mercedes-AMG.
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 of the GTWC Europe, which features both sprint and endurance meetings.
This weekend’s events mark the second sprint round of this campaign, following the first in the UK held in June, with others to follow in France later this month and August, in the Netherlands in September, and in Spain in October.
Endurance meetings have already taken place in France, Italy, and Belgium, with two more scheduled for August in Germany and October in Portugal.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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