Elite Motorsport’s #17 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo pairing of Tom Lebbon and Tom Emson won their third International GT Open sprint race of the 2026 season in Hungary.
A red flag with 94 seconds remaining prematurely ended the fight for the lead between Lebbon and Greystone GT’s #33 McLaren GT3 EVO of Dean Macdonald.
Although it was unfortunate to end an exciting finish, the #14 Good Speed Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Tomasz Magdziarz crashed and became stranded in the middle of the final corner, Turn 14, which immediately became a hazard on the racing line.
Emson claimed pole position this morning and led a relatively clean start ahead of the #28 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Dominik Baumann.
Unfortunately for Baumann, only a couple of minutes after the pit stop window opened with 35 minutes left, he suffered a left-rear puncture, which left him running slowly and forced him to pit.
Elite Motorsport utilised this opportunity to make their pit stop and emerged as the leader afterwards.
Backmarker traffic meant that Lebbon, having taken over from Emson, was not in the clear yet from McLaren factory driver Macdonald, who closed down the gap until he reached the tail of the yellow #17 Ferrari.
The red flag secured Elite’s fourth-ever GT Open victory after making an overnight engine change from a mechanical issue that left them scoring zero points yesterday. Most importantly, Elite maintain their championship lead.
“It was a much better day than yesterday, and after the win last year, I think we had to come back and do it again,” said Emson. “The car felt amazing and really good.
“Thanks to the team for everything they’ve done this weekend.”
“It was tough,” added Lebbon. “Obviously, Deano (Dean Macdonald) was catching me towards the end. It was a mega race with him, to be honest. It was hard work.
“We were fast in the right places, which was very helpful, but yeah, it was a really good race, really good result, especially coming back from yesterday.”
AF Corse’s #51 Ferrari duo of Rafael Durán and Tomasco Mosca claimed their first podium appearance of the season in third outright.
During the Lebbon-Macdonald fight, Durán caught and overtook the #75 Team ISR Audi R8 GT3 EVO 2 driven by Libor Milota to take third place.
Even still, the #75 ISR Audi shared by Milota and Filip Salaquarda savoured their first Pro-Am victory of this year at the circuit closest to their home in Czechia, having held their form without error.
They were another case of redemption, as a time penalty for incident responsibility ended chances of winning yesterday’s race in Pro-Am.
Mercedes-AMG factory driver Maximilian Götz brought the #71 Motopark Mercedes in fifth position overall with teammate Christian Mansell.
Götz earned his position with 14 minutes left against the #96 AF Corse Ferrari of Yaroslav Veselaho from a superb overtake between Turns 13 and 14.
AF Corse’s Veselaho brought the #96 Ferrari in sixth overall, with his teammate Thomas Neubauer engaging in a serious fight during his opening stint with Karol Basz’s #777 Olimp Racing Ferrari, the pair making contact several times from the very first lap.
One such instance saw Basz make contact on the inside line into the T2 braking zone. Basz’s wide line out of the chicane later that lap left his #777 Ferrari out of shape, allowing Neubauer to get back through into eighth place.
Rodrigo Testa and Leonardo Moncini claimed seventh place in the #63 Scuderia Villorba Corse Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, which struggled in the weekend so far and appeared in slightly more competitive shape during this second race.
CBRX by SPS’s #54 Mercedes-AMG finished eighth outright, second in Pro-Am, in the hands of Yannick Mettler and Dexter Müller.
Müller went wide at T4 with nine minutes remaining, which allowed Milota — whose #75 Audi served pit stop compensation time — to take the Pro-Am lead.
Olimp Racing’s #777 Ferrari finished ninth outright in the hands of Marcin Jedliński and Basz, resulting in a Pro-Am podium finish.
ZRS Motorsport’s #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo pairing of Alex Fontana and Pietro Armanni managed 10th place, having started in 11th.
Olimp Racing’s #5 solo Ferrari driver, Krystian Korzeniowski, won in the Am category.
He took the Am lead with just 16 minutes left in the race after Kobe Pauwels, driving the #97 Blackthorn Aston Martin, spun out the then-Am leader, Seweryn Mazur, who was at the wheel of the #79 Sendom Lamborghini. The Aston Martin junior driver received a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision.
Alexander Fach and Alexander Schwarzer finished 12th in the #11 Fach Auto Tech Porsche, fourth in Pro-Am, having climbed 11 positions since the start.
Pauwels and Charles Bateman’s #97 Blackthorn Aston Martin rounded out the top five in Pro-Am.
Another Pro-Am competitor followed in the form of Jim Pla/Michaël Blanchemain in the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi, who was hit by a 15-second time penalty: 5 for not serving the pit stop handicap correctly, and 10 for Pla spinning out Hubert Darmetko’s #7 PTT Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
Four places behind the Am winner in 15th, Mazur took second in the Am category ahead of Vincent Abril/Laurent De Meeus’s #55 AF Corse Ferrari.
Czechs Antal Zsisgo and Csaba Walter rounded out the Am podium in the #500 Gamota BMW.
The next International GT Open race meeting will be another sprint event on 17-19 July at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Images courtesy of GT Open
