McLaren and Audi each took a turn in the sun across two absorbing GT4 European Series races at Misano World Circuit Marco Siomncelli, with Elite Motorsport and Team Speedcar splitting the wins at the Italian venue.
Despite several near-misses for both teams already this season, both the British and French squads produced controlled performances to score a victory apiece, and in doing so closed up the title fight nicely with just four races remaining this season.
In Race 1, Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell and Charlie Hart successfully managed both the heat and a race full of incident to rise through the order aboard the #78 McLaren, helped by multiple retirements around them, including both front-row starters – the #1 Team Speedcar Audi and #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG.
For much of the race, victory didn’t look like heading the way of the orange McLaren, but a series of disasters for the race leaders at mid-distance paved the way for Cresswell and Hart’s victory.
Benjamin Lariche had annexed pole ahead of Lluc Ibañez, but it was the #15 Mercedes-AMG on the outside that got the jump at the start, running around the outside of the #1 Audi to snatch the lead. From there, Ibañez set about building a gap back to Lariche, who was struggling with failing ABS. The gap stood at just over six seconds when the Spaniard dived in to hand to Alex Papadopulos, with the Mercedes-AMG still heading the #1 Audi once it rejoined with Robert Consani now giving chase.
However, Consani was soon back into the box with a severe vibration as the ABS finally let go, and just as he was giving his exit interview Papadopulos slowed from the lead on the pit straight with an engine problem.
All of that handed Elite the lead. Cresswell had run fourth over the first half, stopped early to hand to Hart and the clean air helped the car jump into the lead once the top two had expired. From there Hart wasn’t troubled, running clear to win comfortably.
The fight for the remaining podium places was far from settled. Yani Stevenheydens had held third early on in the #77 McLaren but lost out to the sister Elite car in the stops, with Harri Reynolds emerging from the pit cycle behind Hart to briefly create a one-two for the British squad, but he had the #8 Team Speedcar Audi of Paul Petit right behind.
Petit passed Reynolds to grab second for himself and Gregory Guilvert, leaving Reynolds in a tight four-car battle with Michiel Haverans’ #68 TeamFloral Ford Mustang, Pedro Garcia’s #74 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin and Lachlan Evennett in the #4 Speedy Motorsport Toyota.
Haverans worked his way into third and looked set for a third podium in as many events alongside Sam Paley before being forced to park the Mustang with a suspension problem as the final member of the top three dropped out.
Evennett then pulled a superb pass on both the Aston and McLaren as they fought ahead to settle the final podium place in style ahead of Garcia and Reynolds. Hudson Schwartz and Lucas Cartelle completed the top six in the #87 CRT-Sport Toyota.
Elite’s points haul was well timed with the championship leaders all hitting trouble. Enrico Förderer and Cedric Fuchs were just 12th in their #111 SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm Mercedes-AMG after serving a drive-through for contact, while Thomas Rackl and Gabriele Piana were an early retirement after their #12 Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW was caught in an early accident.
Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead made no mistake on their way to doubling Elite’s haul of silverware, with both drivers controlling their respective stints to win in Pro-Am.
Robertson held fifth overall across the first half before opting to pit for Ramyead in a quiet pitlane, with a smooth stop from the #71 Elite crew putting Ramyead out under minimal pressure. He ran to seventh overall, a few places clear of the points-leading #98 Schubert Motorsport BMW of Joakim Walde and Victor Bouveng, which maintained its podium streak in second.
Walde did endure a worrying moment when he bashed doors with Daniel Nilsson’s Nova Racing Porsche, which put the Cayman out, but the BMW continued to second, holding off Paolo and Davide Meloni’s W&D Racing Team M4.
Christoffer and Mikael Brunnhagen had claimed Am class pole for GR Sweden but lost out to Max Kronberg and Daniel Blickle across what became a tight race-long duel. The win for the #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche was Blickle and Kronberg’s first at Misano after a string of bad luck here in past attempts.
In Race 2, Paul Petit and Gregory Guilvert took a controlled victory aboard the #8 Team Speedcar Audi, scoring both their first win of the season and a first for the German marque in 2026.
Having dominated last year, Team Speedcar have had a tougher time this season, but Petit and Guilvert made no mistake, leading throughout from pole ahead of the sister #1 car of Robert Consani and Benjamin Lariche, sealing a hard-earned one-two for Team Speedcar.
Petit got the power down well to lead the pack at the start, while Consani faced an early fight with the Race 1-winning #78 Elite McLaren of Charlie Hart, which briefly slipped into second on lap one before Consani fought back past. That would be as good as it would get for the Artura, as something let go on the rear-right of the car and consigned Hart back to the pits to retire.
Up front Petit used Consani’s distraction to pull a gap of a few seconds before running deep into the pit window to hand to Guilvert. Consani managed to close the gap to just over a second by the time he relayed with Lariche, but the #1’s engine refused to fire up after the driver change, costing valuable seconds and allowing Guilvert to escape.
Lariche chased hard but Guilvert had built a comfortable lead, only to have it reduced to nothing when the safety car was called to retrieve the #61 Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang that had come to a smokey stop out on track. It didn’t matter much though, as Guilvert controlled the restart to over the final few minutes to secure the result ahead of Lariche.
Gabriele Piana put in a typically strong opening stint to bring the #12 Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW into the podium fight across the first half before handing to Thomas Rackl. The German held the spot until the closing moments, when he fell victim to the charging #68 TeamFloral Ford. After losing a potential podium to a suspension failure on Saturday, Michiel Haverans and Sam Paley made things right this time, with Paley passing Rackl and defending to the flag.
Pedro Garcia and Clement Seyler were a strong fifth for Racing Spirit of Léman, the #74 Aston Martin battling past the #87 CRT-Sport Toyota of Hudson Schwartz/Lucas Cartelle and Harri Reynolds/Yani Stevenheydens’ #77 Elite McLaren.
Class points leaders Enrico Förderer and Cedric Fuchs again had a quiet race, finishing ninth to at least bag some points aboard their #111 SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm Mercedes-AMG. Their lead is now cut to 22 points over Piana and Rackl, with Hart/Cresswell a further eight points behind in third, whilst Petit/Guilvert have climbed to fourth in the drivers’ standings.
In the Silver teams’ championship, it’s even closer, with SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm eight points clear of Team Speedcar, with Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport and Elite Motorsport with Entire Race Engineering 23 and 28 points behind respectively.
Audi didn’t just shine in Silver, with Sacha Bottemanne and Viny Beltramelli surging clear of their class rivals to bag a second Pro-Am victory of the season in Team Speedcar’s #3 entry.
Bottemanne qualified the car comfortably clear of the opposition and was never really troubled as he impressively took the fight to the leading pack of Silvers around him. Julien Briché led the charge for second before his #24 JSB Competition Porsche was hit off by the #70 Razoon – more than Racing BMW of Chris Salkeld, which earned the M4 a penalty and dropped it out of the fight.
That opened the door for Florent Grizaud and David Kullmann to grab second in their #72 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin with Paolo and Davide Meloni completing the podium in the #53 W&D Racing Team BMW. Davide resisted pressure from championship leaders Victor Bouveng and Joakim Walde, whose perfect podium run in the#98 Schubert Motorsport M4 came to an end with them finishing fourth.
They still hold a commanding points lead though, 66 points clear of Salkeld and Daniel Drexel, who head a tight battle for second which sees four crews covered by just six points.
Mikael and Christoffer Brunnhagen finally celebrated their breakthrough Am win aboard the #55 Gazoo Racing Sweden Toyota Supra. They ran consistently to beat Daniel Blickle and Max Kronberg’s #30 W&S Porsche, which endured a load of issues. Blickle was hit and spun in the first half, before Kronberg suffered a puncture near the finish but managed to limp the car across the line to at least score some points.
Blickle now leads the #55 Toyota pair by 28 points, with W&S Motorsport holding the same advantage over Gazoo Racing Sweden in the teams’ standings.
The 2026 GT4 European Series continues at Zandvoort on 18th to 20th September, for the penultimate event of the season.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
