Max Verstappen made his GT World Challenge Europe debut at Portimao, finishing 20th overall in the opening practice session (FP1) for the Endurance Cup season finale.
The four-time F1 world champion joined Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat in the No.3 Team Verstappen entry, filling in as regular drivers Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Barcelona.
In a closely fought two-hour session, the Verstappen trio ended up just 0.403 seconds off the fastest time, narrowly behind the No.66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi by 0.001 seconds.
Leading the timesheets was the No.84 Eastalent Racing Audi of Christopher Haase, Simon Rechier, and Markus Winkelhock with a time of 1m42.643s, closely followed by the No.32 WRT BMW and the top Gold class No.99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi.
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi’s No.46 WRT BMW finished fifth, 0.063 seconds off the best pace, with a number of teams fielding stand-in drivers due to the WEC-Barcelona clash.
Practice continues with FP2 from 12:45pm to 2:15pm BST, ahead of qualifying at 5:55pm BST.
Verstappen’s first outing in the GTWCE has been competitive, and all eyes will be on how he adapts through the remainder of the weekend.
