Christian Mansell and Mercedes-AMG factory driver Maximilian Götz sealed Race 1 victory of the International GT Open’s 2026 season finale weekend at Barcelona.
The #71 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo pairing secured their second win of the year, bouncing back from their Monza 500 heartbreak last time out by successfully converting pole position to victory, as they did at the Spa 500.
Mansell retained his lead at the start whilst a multi-car incident further back triggered an early safety car (SC) period.
Heading through Turn 2, Zac Meakin tapped his #33 Greystone GT McLaren 720S GT3 Evo into Nikita Mazepin’s #99 Motopark Mercedes, who, as a result, spun and hit Jim Pla’s #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 — which then hit Joe Osborne’s #23 Optimum Motorsport McLaren.
Osborne was sent to the gravel trap, while championship leader Tom Lebbon in the #17 Elite Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo was also caught up in the drama.
Starting from 10th place, Lebbon took evasive action but managed to escape with only minor contact with the concrete barrier, as this setback hindered the team’s chances at wrapping up the title today by scoring no points.
The #33 Greystone GT McLaren was awarded a 10-second time penalty for incident responsibility after Dean Macdonald had taken over the wheel.
A late clash between two Mercedes drivers — Dexter Müller (#54 CBRX by SPS) and Dominik Baumann (#28 Motopark) — meant the 70-minute race ended under full-course yellow (FCY) conditions.
This negated the #33 Greystone GT McLaren’s 10s penalty because the FCY kept the gaps between all drivers, so Macdonald did not lose any places with the penalty applied. An SC would have bunched the field and put the #33 McLaren further down the order.
Heading into tomorrow’s deciding race, Lebbon/Tom Emson still lead on 138 points, narrowly ahead of Meakin/Macdonald’s 132 and 127 points each.
After Mansell established his early lead, Götz continued unchallenged with no pit-stop handicap time and won by 13.496 seconds under FCY after 37 laps.
“I think today was an amazing showcase of what we’ve been able to do all season-long,” said Mansell after the race.
“Of course, Monza was not ideal, but before that, we were in a position to win, and we’re just continuing to show day-in, day-out that we are able to do this.
“We are able to win, and it’s a credit to Motopark, it’s a credit to Mercedes and a credit to Mr Götz as well. So I’m really happy.”
“I think nobody wants to see that finish,” added Götz, referring to the race ending under FCY.
“Everybody wants to see fighting out there, but I think we had enough of a gap to control it.
“In the end, Christian did an amazing job. Our strategy was perfect today, and we had a great car to drive, and we deserved it, to be honest, because we’ve been quick all season.
“We suffered a lot in Monza, and that’s the place where we also lost the championship.
“We were to fight for a win. We did it today. We’ll try to repeat it tomorrow, even with a bit of (pit stop handicap) penalty we will get.
“But I’m super happy for the team that worked hard over the season; they deserved to be on top today.”
ZRS Motorsport’s drivers Pietro Armanni and Alex Fontana made a sterling effort to finish second in the #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.
Armanni started in P14 but climbed into the top 10 during his opening stint, engaging in a fight with another Porsche driver and Pro-Am championship leader Alexander Fach (#11 Fach Auto Tech).
The #911 Porsche pitted from eighth place, seeing Fontana emerge in second place afterwards.
Greystone’s #33 of Meakin/Macdonald secured third, narrowing the gap to the standings leaders, Elite Motorsport.
Macdonald showcased his form immediately, prevailing over the #96 AF Corse Ferrari of Yaroslav Vesalaho into P4 with 22 minutes remaining, before passing Fach’s Am-graded teammate Alexander Schwarzer with a straightforward move into the first corner.
Vesalaho and Thomas Neubauer finished where they started in P4 ahead of the #44 Greystone GT McLaren shared by recently crowned GT4 European Series champion McKenzy Cresswell and McLaren Trophy Europe champion Callum Davies.
Greystone GT wrapped up the Teams’ title after both cars finished in the top five.
Sixth outright and winners in Pro-Am, Fach/Schwarzer in the #11 Fach Auto Tech Porsche were ahead of the #62 Double TT Racing Ferrari of Gilles Renmans and Leonardo Colavita.
Pro-Am pole-sitter Müller lost P2 in the #54 Mercedes after his late incident with Baumann, allowing 2020 GT Open champion Henrique Chaves to snatch second in the #97 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo — despite Müller having sustained Chaves’s pressure beforehand.
AF Corse’s #51 Ferrari of Tomasco Mosca and Rafael Durán finished ninth having started down in P25.
DTM regular Ben Dörr took 10th place with Alejandro Geppert in the #770 SMC McLaren in the team’s GT Open debut.
Filip Salaquarda completed the Pro-Am podium in the #75 Team ISR Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 alongside teammate Igor Milota, finishing ahead of the #117 Porsche shared by Mikkel O. Pedersen and Lars Engelbrekt Pedersen.
Karol Basz finished 13th outright and fifth in Pro-Am with his #777 Olimp Racing Ferrari teammate Marcin Jedliński, followed next by the #17 Elite Ferrari (Lebbon/Emson).
Team Motopark’s #89 Mercedes (Nigel Schoonderwoerd/Yelmer Buurman) finished 15th overall ahead of Leonardo Moncini’s #63 Scuderia Villorba Corse Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, with his teammate Rodrigo Testa having also been caught up in the opening-lap incident like Lebbon.
Testa posed a significant challenge to Lebbon’s comeback efforts, having passed the #63 Lamborghini at Turn 2 before the pit window opened.
In 17th overall, the #5 Olimp Racing Ferrari of Krystian Korzeniowski won in the Am category.
He jumped 10 positions to P10 outright at the start, taking the lead from the Am pole-sitting Good Speed Aston Martin of Denis Waszek.
Korzeniowski spun on the exit of Turn 3 soon after, handing the lead back to Good Speed.
Later, with 13 minutes remaining, Korzeniowski retook the Am lead on Piotr Wira (#14 Good Speed Aston) into Turn 1 before winning for the second time this year ahead of Good Speed.
Seweryn Mazur rounded out the Am podium in the #79 Sendom Racing Lamborghini.
Action resumes with qualifying for Race 2 tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET.
