Lionspeed Porsche Duo Head 44-Car Barcelona Entry

Lionspeed GP Porsche pair Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus head a 44-car entry for this weekend’s final round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup at Barcelona.

The No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo drivers enjoy a six-point advantage at the head of the standings but, with the top-four crews separated by fewer than ten points, the title battle remains wide open.

Feller and Buus achieved a second place last time out at Zandvoort earlier this month to move to the summit of the table, despite the duo only finishing in the points in half of the races to date.

But those results include victories at Brands Hatch and Magny-Cours as well as a pair of runner-up places as many of the top crews have struggled for consistency.

Their nearest rival heading into the Spanish decider is Dani Juncadella aboard the No. 3 Verstappen Racing 2 Seas-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo who will benefit from a home crowd.

Juncadella has shared with both Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon during this season as the former missed two events while recovering from appendix surgery.

But Juncadella is joined on 53 points by the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo pair of Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer.

Also in the mix are reigning champions Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde but the WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO duo have endured a tough run of races, having failed to score in the past three contests but still remain only 9.5 points off top spot.

Others with more slim chances include recently-crowned Endurance Cup champions Maro Engel and Lucas Auer in the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG and the Emil Frey Ferrari of Ben Green and Thierry Vermeulen that triumphed last time out.

Among the entry tweaks in the Pro class for Barcelona are Sven Mueller stepping aboard the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche in place of Morris Schuring, who is in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship action, while the entry has slimmed from the Zandvoort record of 45 with the Razoon – more than racing Porsche not competing in Spain.

AF Corse Ferrari pair Matias Zagazeta and Tommaso Mosca enjoy a more comfortable lead in the Gold Cup as they are 21 points ahead of the Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Tom Fleming and Louis Prette that took an outright Zandvoort victory.

Should the Ferrari crew maintain that lead after race one, they will be crowned champions.

The Bronze Cup fight is much closer as Eddie Cheever III and Peter Dempsey aboard the Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche lead the standings by just 6.5 points from Winward Mercedes-AMG duo Marvin Dienst and Rinat Salikhov after taking a double Zandvoort triumph.

But the 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG of Kiern Jewiss and Charles Dawson and the Paradine Competition BMW of Augusto Farfus and Darren Leung — fresh from their FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 win at Fuji last weekend — are also within striking distance of the leading Porsche.

The Silver Cup spoils have already gone the way of WRT’s Ignacio Montenegro and Matisse Lismont as they completed a hat-trick of GTWC Europe titles at Zandvoort.

There are two Porsche lineup tweaks in the Silver division with Mikkel Pedersen back aboard the No. 9 Pure Rxcing 911 alongside Alex Malykhin, having also contested the Magny-Cours round, while Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia race winner Gustav Bergstrom will partner Nicolas Baert in the No. 89 Lionspeed example.

Track action begins on Friday with two free practice sessions before opening qualifying is then scheduled for 9:50 a.m. CEST (3:50 a.m. EST) on Saturday, ahead of the opening hour-long contest at 2 p.m. CEST (8 a.m. EST). Qualifying for Race 2 is then set for 11:15 a.m. CEST (5:15 a.m. EST) on Sunday with the Sprint Cup finale due to begin at 4 p.m. CEST (10 a.m. EST). Both qualifying sessions and races will be streamed on the GTWC Europe website and GT World YouTube channel.