The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup has attracted yet another record field for the penultimate round of the 2026 campaign, with 45 cars set to compete around the dunes of Zandvoort this weekend.
15 of those will be in the Pro category, with eight in the Gold Cup, 12 in the Silver Cup and 10 in the Bronze Cup.
With four races to go, the battle for the Sprint Cup Drivers’ Championship remains wide-open, with under 10 points covering the top five crews.
Defending champions Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts lead the way on 49.5 points aboard the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo, but saw their advantage slashed from 14 points to just 2.5 points following a difficult outing at the previous round at Magny-Cours last month. The French round also saw van der Linde pick up a five-place grid penalty for Race 2 at Zandvoort, meaning the defending winners at the Dutch venue already start the weekend on the back foot.
Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller sit second in the 24 Hours of Spa-winning #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2), but the pair will be seeking some consistency after only finishing in the top 10 in three races so far this year. Fortunately for them, when they score they score big, with two wins, two poles and a second-place finish to their names.
Daniel Juncadella is third in the Drivers’ standings on 44.5 points in the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing AMG GT3 Evo, with the Spaniard alone having been joined by both Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon this year. Now recovered from having his appendix removed, Lulham will act as his co-driver for the title run-in.
Fourth, on 41 points, is the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubuaer, which thanks to a second and a fourth was the top scoring entry at Magny-Cours. Neubauer is set to race this weekend despite recently sustaining a complex fracture to his left collarbone following a cycling accident.
The #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Endurance Cup Drivers’ champions Lucas Auer and Maro Engel completes the list of major title contenders, a further point back. The 2024 champions, with three third-place finishes and a fourth to their name, have arguably been the most consistent crew in the Sprint Cup this season, but are now on a 14-race winless streak dating back to Brands Hatch last year.
Furthermore, their podium finish from Race 2 in Misano is at risk of being discounted due to a potentially non-compliant wheel bearing. If this decision goes against the American-flagged effort, they’ll face the task of clawing back 19 points over just four races.
Where Auer and Engel do have the edge is in the season-long Drivers’ Championship, where their Endurance Cup form has left them with a 34.5-point advantage over van der Linde and Weerts. The Teams’ Championship, meanwhile, sees Winward Racing head Team WRT by only 4.5 points.
In the Sprint Cup Teams’ Championship, Team WRT have a comfortable 18-point buffer over Lionspeed GP, with an upset overall podium for its Silver Cup crew in Magny-Cours paying dividends.
Elsewhere in Pro, the addition of the #914 Razoon – more than racing Porsche of Simon Birch and Klaus Bachler has bolstered the field, whilst fellow Porsche squad Boutsen VDS has rotated the line-up of its #2 911 GT3 R (992.2) as Morris Schuring replaces Alessio Picariello alongside Dorian Boccolacci.
Boutsen VDS is one of several Pro squads which, with its title hopes dashed, can turn it focus to race wins and podiums in this final stage of the campaign. Comtoyou Racing and Rutronik Racing both finished on the podium in Magny-Cours, the latter scoring the Lamborghini Temerario GT3’s best-ever finish in SRO competition, whilst Garage 59 and Eastalent Racing also put together their best weekends of the season.
Emil Frey Racing will be looking to kickstart what has proven to be a difficult 2026 campaign at a venue where it scored a front row lockout last season, and achieved a sweep of race wins in 2021, with Team WRT’s #31 and #46 BMWs also still chasing their first podiums of the year.
In the Gold Cup, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Tommaso Mosca and Matias Zagazeta has amassed a 15-point lead after finishing on the podium in five of the six races so far this season.
The class has proven to be incredibly competitive in 2026, with five different winners and all but one of its eight competitors having finished on the podium at least once. KPX Motorsport’s #77 BMW is the only team to have missed out so far, a fact the rookie team would love to correct on home soil.
The #58 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo of Louis Prette and Thomas Fleming, which is yet to win this season, sits second, three and six points respectively ahead of CSA Racing’s pair of McLarens. This strength in numbers has put the French outfit in a strong place in the Teams’ Championship however, with it only two points behind AF Corse.
The titles most likely to be decided this weekend are in the Silver Cup, as Matisse Lismont, Ignacio Montenegro and Team WRT look to put an early bow on their dominant campaign.
Already the Endurance Cup champions aboard the #30 BMW, they lead the Sprint Cup by 37 points, and the season-long contest by 87.5 points (‘only’ 84.5 points in the Teams’ Championship), having only finished off the podium once all season in either campaign, with a sixth in the Monza Endurance Cup event.
If they exit Zandvoort with a margin of over 35 points in the Sprint Cup, and over 61 points in the combined, they will be crowned champions, meaning the title could be wrapped up as soon as Race 1.
Their closest challengers in the Sprint Cup are the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo crew of Jamie Day and Mateo Villagómez, who have a 3.5-point margin over the #6 GetSpeed Team Bartone Bros Mercedes-AMG of Aurelien Panis and Anthony Bartone.
Lionspeed GP will field a second Sprint Cup entry for the first time this season, with its #89 Porsche entered into Silver for debutant Flynt Schuring and 2023 Gold Cup champion Nicolas Baert. Last month, Schuring became the youngest-ever Porsche Supercup champion, before last weekend making his GT3 debut in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, finishing second in a wet Race 2.
At Pure Rxcing, meanwhile, Ricardo Pera will return to the #9 Porsche having missed Magny-Cours due to a clash with his IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup commitments.
And in the Bronze Cup, Rinat Salikhov and Marvin Dienst lead the Drivers’ standings aboard the #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, with their two wins and a further second-place finish counteracting a disappointing eighth in Race 2 at Magny-Cours.
The #222 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss is eight points behind in second, with the Herberth Motorsport-run #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche of Peter Dempsey and Eddie Cheever up to third having been the top scorer at Zandvoort.
Defending Drivers’ Champion Dustin Blattner is set to return to action in the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, following his major accident at Magny-Cours, although at 24 points behind the American and Dennis Marschall face an uphill battle to defend their crown.
After making its season debut at Magny-Cours, the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Jim Pla and Michael Blanchemain has not returned for this weekend, a great shame given the French squad finished fourth and second overall with lower-class entries at Zandvoort last year.
Track action at Zandvoort will begin with a pair of 80-minute Free Practice sessions on Friday 18th September. Qualifying 1 will take place at 9:50 CEST on Saturday 19th, ahead of Race 1 at 14:45 CEST. Sunday will then feature Qualifying 2 at 10:35 CEST, before Race 2 at 14:15 CEST.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
