Penalty derails Max Verstappen victory bid at Portimao

A mid-race drive-through penalty derailed Team Verstappen’s hopes of victory in the GT World Challenge Europe finale at Portimao, leaving Max Verstappen with a late recovery drive.

Contact between Chris Lulham and Luca Stolz resulted in a penalty for the Team Verstappen entry, dropping it out of contention inside the final hour.

Max Verstappen’s Portimao charge falls short after Team Verstappen penalty

It was a race of what might have been, with strong late pace for Verstappen not enough to overcome the drive-through handed down just prior to him climbing in.

Ben Barnicoat started the race in the #3 Team Verstappen Mercedes-AMG GT3, quickly rising to 10th.

The Englishman took advantage of a full course yellow inside the opening 20 minutes to pounce on Nicki Thiim as racing resumed.

Contact between the #32 BMW and #50 Ferrari saw the latter turned around just shy of half an hour as they squabbled over sixth, opening the door for Barnicoat to claim another place.

Jordan Pepper was at the wheel of the BMW, and copped a drive-through penalty for the clash, an error that handed Barnicoat another position once the South African trundled down the lane.

The opening stint of the race saw the #2 Porsche, driven by Alessio Picariello, lead throughout from Thomas Preining and Maxi Gotz for company.

The trio raced nose to tail for much of the opening hour before Preining boxed the #80 Porsche.

Barnicoat maximised his stint length before pitting and handing the #3 Mercedes to Chris Lulham.

The ex-sim racer was immediately on the attack, passing Thomas Drouet’s Ford Mustang around the outside at Turn 7 in an aggressive move soon after exiting the pit lane.

That left him sixth place on track following the opening round of stops, the Brit having to defend a counterattack from the Mustang following a brief Full Course Yellow.

A scrap for second soon developed, allowing Lulham to close in and begin harrying the rear of fifth-placed Luca Stolz’s Mercedes.

Stolz had sat fourth but began to struggle for pace as the race approached mid-distance, allowing Joseph Loake to pass for fourth in the #59 McLaren.

That left the yellow Mercedes vulnerable to Lulham as he slipped off the back of the second-place battle.

Contact for two slower Porsches saw them end up buried in the gravel to trigger another Full Course Yellow just after half-distance.

That progressed into a full Safety Car, wiping out Ralf Aron’s three-second race lead in a heartbeat.

At the restart, an aggressive move up the inside at Turn 8 from Lulham saw him make contact with Luca Stolz, spinning the Mercedes.

In the melee, the #64 Mustang also found a way through, leaving Lulham sixth despite the move as Stolz fell to 39th.

The incident caught the attention of officials, who handed Lulham a drive-through penalty that effectively ended Team Verstappen’s victory hopes.

He served it with 53 minutes remaining, just as Verstappen prepared to climb into the Mercedes.

Lulham then remained on track for another handful of laps – a strategic move in the hope of a Safety Car or Full Course Yellow which would minimise the impact of the time lost by Verstappen’s driver change.

The Dutchman finally climbed in with 45 minutes remaining, emerging from the lane in the middle of a gaggle of cars in 24th place.

He made swift forward progress, rising to 19th, before another Full Course Yellow when two cars were left stranded on track in separate incidents.

Once racing resumed, Verstappen again progressed quickly to 14th. His progress then stalled briefly behind the #51 Ferrari.

However, once clear, his rapid march continued as he rose to 10th in a lap as those ahead of him squabbled.

That opened the door for Verstappen to pass Jamie Day, Thomas Fleming, and even Arthur Leclerc, moving up to ninth with three laps remaining.

It was there his charge effectively ended, the gap to the Mercedes in eighth too great to overhaul, missing out on another place by three-tenths of a second at the flag.

The race was won by Fabian Schiller aboard the #17 Mercedes-AMG GT3, with the #80 Porsche in second from the #2 Porsche completing the outright podium.

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