Boutsen VDS’ #2 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) will start the final round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season from pole position, after the Belgian squad topped this evening’s qualifying session at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.
Morris Schuring, Dorian Boccolacci and Alessio Picariello combined to average a 1:42.071, beating the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed AMG GT3 EVO by 0.108 seconds.
Both Schuring and Boccolacci topped their respective sessions, leaving Picariello with a 0.184-second margin to defend over the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche and 0.204 seconds over the #17 Mercedes-AMG.
The Porsche contracted driver was unable to make it a clean sweep of the three qualifying sessions, with Q3 being topped by the #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Simon Birch, but seventh from Picariello was more than enough to secure pole position.
It is the 992.2-spec Porsche’s maiden Endurance Cup pole position.
Fabian Schiller’s Q3 effort promoted the #17 Mercedes-AMG into second, with the #80 Porsche and #64 HRT Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo making up the second row of the grid.
The #50 AF Corse Ferrari qualified fifth, after Lilou Wadoux was second in Q3, ahead of the Winward Racing-run #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter entry. The AMG squad has cause to celebrate, however, as with Comtoyou Racing missing out on the point for pole position it has secured its first Endurance Cup Teams’ Championship title.
Seventh went to the #59 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo, ahead of the Gold Cup-topping #71 Ferrari, with the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo and #51 AF Corse Ferrari completing the top 10.
The #58 Garage 59 McLaren and #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche, which were second and third in Gold, will make up the sixth row of the grid.
It was a difficult session for the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing AMG, which qualified 15th after none of its drivers finished top 10 in their individual sessions. The 2 Seas Motorsport-run effort made a set-up change which didn’t deliver the hoped for performance, with the car running visibly lower than many rivals.
BMW’s trio of Pro class efforts also struggled. The #32 Team WRT M4 GT3 Evo was 14th, with the #98 Rowe Racing effort in 35th. It was worse still for the #46 Team WRT entry, which qualified 60th after Valentino Rossi had all of his lap times deleted due to track limit offences.
In the Silver Cup, the #65 HRT Ford Racing entry of Maxime Oosten, Nicolas Baert and Eduardo Coseteng scored its second pole position of the season in 13th overall.
The German squad trailed the #30 Team WRT BMW after the first two parts of qualifying, but a Q3A-leading 1:41.802 from Coseteng was enough to overhaul the Silver Cup champions. The #30 BMW ended up second, with the Monza-winning #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in third.
UPDATE: The #65 Ford has had all of its laptimes deleted because the data logger was disconnected prior to qualifying, with no data recorded throughout the session. The #30 BMW has therefore inherited its second consecutive Silver Cup pole, with the #65 Ford demoted to the back of the field.
And in the Bronze Cup, Paradine Competition claimed its first pole position of the year, earning Darren Leung a crucial point in his quest for the full-season Bronze Cup Drivers’ Championship.
Leung, James Kellett and Robert De Haan combined to set an average lap time of 1:42.976, with a 1:41.971 from De Haan climbing their #991 BMW from fourth to first in Q3.
“Big thanks to Paradine Competition for given me the tools and the car to do it,” De Haan said. “I had a really strong car underneath me.”
“It’s an important qualifying for the team so I’m happy to grab pole position in class. Now we’ve just got to focus on the race, keep the car in one piece and bring it home over the line – hopefully in the same position as where we qualified.”
The #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG was second, ahead of the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari and #42 Century Motorsport BMW.
The #222 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG, which scored Bronze Cup pole at the Nürburgring, will start from the back of the field after Charles Dawson pitted at the end of his out lap in Q2, with the car failing to set a time, but it did return to the track for Q3.
The three-hour 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season finale will take place at 17:00 WEST tomorrow evening.
Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
