GetSpeed Wins Portimão Finale as Verstappen Charges to Ninth
Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed won the three-hour GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup finale at Portimão on October 17, 2026. Ralf Aron, Maximilian Götz and Fabian Schiller delivered the team’s first overall Endurance Cup victory, while Max Verstappen finished ninth after a busy final stint in a different Mercedes-AMG.
Archive photo: GetSpeed Performance’s No. 82 Mercedes-AMG GT3, shared by Ralf Aron and Marcelo Ramírez, at Mogyoród on July 5, 2025. This is not the No. 17 car or the October 2026 Portimão race. Photo: Lukas Raich / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; displayed at resized dimensions.
GetSpeed takes the win, Porsche fills the podium
The organizer’s race report identifies GetSpeed’s breakthrough as Mercedes-AMG’s 12th Endurance Cup win. It was also Götz’s first overall win in the competition since 2013; Aron and Schiller had not previously won overall.
According to Mercedes-AMG’s October 17 account, Götz started the No. 17 car second. Staying out longer before the first pit stop helped Aron rejoin in the lead. He and closing driver Schiller kept the car in front.
| Position | Car and team | Drivers | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No. 17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG | Aron / Götz / Schiller | Winner, 94 laps |
| 2 | No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche | Feller / Preining / Buus | 5.062 seconds |
| 3 | No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche | Schuring / Boccolacci / Picariello | 5.411 seconds |
The podium order and gaps above follow the official race classification. SRO labels the result linked from its recap provisional. Class victories went to Selected Car Racing’s Ferrari in Gold Cup, Team WRT’s BMW in Silver Cup and 2 Seas Motorsport’s No. 222 Mercedes-AMG in Bronze Cup.
Verstappen’s recovery and the separate title story
Verstappen shared the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG with Ben Barnicoat and Chris Lulham. The car started 13th and received a drive-through penalty. SRO says Verstappen began his stint 24th, then recovered to ninth despite a safety-car interruption. His 15-place gain describes that closing stint, not the car’s change from its starting position.
The championship chronology matters. Mercedes-AMG says Lucas Auer and Maro Engel’s combined GT World Challenge Europe drivers’ title was settled on Friday, October 16, after Winward’s appeal against a Misano disqualification succeeded. They had already secured the Endurance Cup drivers’ crown with Luca Stolz at the Nürburgring. Winward’s Endurance Cup teams’ title became mathematically certain after Friday qualifying, before the finale. Their No. 48 finished 14th at Portimão.
These are separate from the Intercontinental GT Challenge title covered in our report on Maxime Martin’s Indianapolis championship result.
What the audience record actually measures
In an October 18 audience announcement, SRO reported 9.7 million live views across all broadcast GT World Challenge sessions at Portimão. That is not a count of unique viewers, nor a figure for the three-hour race alone. The organizer also reported 28,000 on-site spectators and broadcasts in seven languages. These are SRO’s figures, not independently audited audience measurements.
SRO lists April 15–18, 2027, at Circuit Paul Ricard as the next season’s opening weekend.